Lemon Bars

In the interest of publicizing the awesomeness of the lemon bars I made the other day (and will be making tomorrow), I'm going to post my adaptation of the recipe, courtesy of The Bon Appetit Cookbook:

Double Lemon Bars


For the Crust:

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• .5 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• 1.5 sticks unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature

For the Filling:

• 4 large eggs
• 1.5 cups granulated white sugar
• .5 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice, strained
• 1 tablespoon freshly-grated lemon peel
• 4 teaspoons all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 13 x 9 x 2 casserole dish with aluminum foil. 
2. Make crust: whisk flour and confectioner's sugar in medium bowl. Add butter. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the dough resembles coarse meal. 
3. Press dough into the foil-lined pan evenly. TBAC suggests using plastic wrap to smooth it out.
4. Bake 20-30 minutes, until golden brown.
5. Make filling: Whisk all five filling ingredients in another bowl until consistency is even. It helps to beat the eggs first.
6. Pour the filling over the hot crust and put back into the oven for another 20 minutes, or until the lemon layer is set. 
7. Dust lemon bars with additional confectioner's sugar.
8. Make sure that lemon bars are 100% cool before you cut them. The lemon layer is gooey and easily boogered up when warm.

If you want them to be extra sour (how Matt likes them), don't strain the pulp out of the lemon juice and add a few extra tablespoons of lemon curd to the filling mixture.

I'm also planning on trying a variation that involves spooning a thin layer of raspberry syrup in between the crust and the lemon filling. As soon as I get around to doing it, I'll post the results.