Lemons Galore

MacGyver's officemate brought homegrown lemons to share so MacGyver brought home a bag full of lemons.  I made some lemon curd and used a couple for cooking then figured I have enough lemons to make lemon squares.  

I haven't made lemon squares in a while.  When the kids were smaller, they were not particularly enthusiastic about these treats.  I got a lot of complaints about how tart the lemon squares were and I ended up eating most of it. (Oh, what a sacrifice!)

Anyway, since I really do love lemon squares, even if we had a tried and tested lemon squares recipe (it was a combination of the crust from one recipe and the filling from another), I still copied down a recipe for lemon bars in my recipe notebook so I could try it out.

It was super yummy!  We'd gone through about a third of the lemon bars and they weren't even at room temperature.  And it came as no surprise that they were even better the next day after they'd been chilled in the fridge. 

We still had some lemons so I made a batch of lemon squares using my old recipe. They were also good and got eaten in record time.

I thought I had used up all of the lemons when I found 3 stragglers in another bag hiding beside the potatoes.  And when life gives you lemons ... you make lemon squares!

PERFECT LEMON BARS

CRUST:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on bars
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, at room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces

FILLING:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, from 2 large lemons
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 3 to 4 large lemons
• 1/3 cup milk
• Pinch of salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9X13-inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper and lightly grease the foil/parchment.
2. Stir together the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt.  Add the pieces of butter and cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender or two knives (or process in the food processor for 8 to 10 seconds and then as needed) until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press into an even layer on the bottom and about 1/2-inch up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
3. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and flour in a medium bowl and then stir in the lemon zest, juice and milk to combine.
4. Pour the filling onto the warm crust (it’s important that the crust is still warm!) and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for another 18-20 minutes until the filling feels slightly firm to the touch. Cool the bars to room temperature, sprinkle with additional powdered sugar and cut into bars.