Lemon Bars

Cindy's mentioned on a few occasions that she'd be interested in a lemon squares recipe. (I love the ones from Blenz). The last time I attempted to make them, it turned out to be more like lemon cheesecake; good, but didn't quite hit the spot.

I came across this recipe, again from seasaltwithfood (she's totally awesome, by the way. I love that she's from Vancouver, and so you know we can get all the required ingredients).

Ingredients:
Shortbread crust:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt


Lemon Filling
3/4 cup sugar (Use 1 cup if you like it more sweet than tart)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (~ 2 lemons)
1 tbs lemon zest
2 tbs flour



Method:
Preheat oven to 350F. Center rack.
Grease a 8x8 inch pan

Crust:
With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Mix in flour and salt and beat until the dough just comes together.
Press on the bottom of the pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly brown.
Remove from oven and cool on a rack while you make the filling.


Filling:
With an electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs until smooth.
Add lemon juice and zest and stir to combine.
Fold in flour.
Pour filling over the crust and bake for 20 minutes, or until filling has set.
Cool on a rack.


Cut into squares and dust with confectioner's sugar.
Best eaten on the same day and can be covered and stored in the fridge for 2 days.



Comments:
So the picture tells that this didn't quite go the way it was supposed to, and I am pretty sure I know exactly why.

First the dough. Mine was super crumbly. I stopped mixing when it started to look like cheese curds (which is when you usually stop cutting butter into the flour in a hand-mix recipe). I should've then kneaded the dough into a ball and then pressed it into the pan. Instead, I just poured the dough bits into the pan and pressed.

Then, I didn't actually measure the lemon juice. I think there might've been slightly more than 1/3 cup. Which meant that I should've compensated by adding more flour.

Now, I don't know if this is the way it's supposed to be, but I didn't know how to fold in the flour to the filling, so I just mixed it in with the electric mixer. The top of the baked product was like a cake skin.

Totally irrelevant, but Will was able to list off all the ingredients. I am suitably impressed.

Verdict:
Easy, and yummy ^^