It’s simple to be grasping with citrus when summer time fruits are a mere heat climate promise. Early spring is excessive season for lemons, and these bars will carry a warming ray of sunshine to your plate.
The important thing to lemon bar, in my ebook, is that the filling have to be intensely lemony. It ought to pack a wallop of puckery tartness balanced by simply sufficient sweetness with out being cloying.
For this process, depend on the Eureka lemon, the ever present lemon readily present in our markets. They’ve the requisite tartness for these bars, which their sunny cousin, the Meyer lemon, lacks. No knock on Meyers—they’re scrumptious in their very own proper. Nevertheless, they’re likened to a cross between a lemon and a tangerine and are famous for his or her sweetness and lack of tartness.
The infallible Eureka lemon will ship the zingy, cheek-sucking filling you need for these bars. A thick curd, rippling with lemon zest, is unfold over a easy, supportive shortbread crust. A smidge of sea salt is a closing flourish that deftly highlights the lemon whereas restraining the sugars from tipping right into a sugary abyss. Now when you’ll excuse me, all this writing has made me crave one other bar.
Lemon Bars
Lively Time: quarter-hour
Whole Time: 1 hour
Makes 16 (2-inch-square) bars
For the Crust:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, barely softened however nonetheless cool, reduce into cubes
For the Filling:
- 4 giant eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- Powdered sugar for sprinkling
- Sea salt flakes, for sprinkling (non-obligatory)
Warmth the oven to 350 levels F. Butter an 8-inch-square baking pan, then line the pan with parchment.
Mix the crust elements within the bowl of an electrical mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Combine till the dough is lumpy and simply begins to stay collectively. Dump the dough into the ready pan and evenly press the dough to cowl the underside of the pan.
Bake the crust till it simply begins to show golden, about 20 minutes. Take away from oven, however don’t flip off the oven warmth.
Whisk the filling elements collectively in a big bowl till blended. Pour the filling over the crust. Return the pan to the oven and bake till the filling is ready however not coloring, about 25 minutes. Take away and funky utterly on a rack.
Lower into bars. Mud with powdered sugar and frivolously sprinkle with sea salt flakes.
