As most know, I have an insane sweet tooth. Well, teeth. I just love sweets! Sometimes, though, I’m looking for something less heavy and more fresh than a decadent rich chocolate something-or-other. These lemon bars are the perfect amount of tart and sweet, don’t overwhelm you after one bite (as some super rich things can), and are – as most of my recipes tend to be – easy and fun to do!

A few quick notes before we begin, however.

First – zest! Long live the zest! If you’re thinking of making these, and all you have in your house is one of those giant Costco-sized bottles of lemon juice, you absolutely can! BUT – the zest is where the real TRUE lemony flavor comes out. It gives it that punch that is just ridiculously good. So if you don’t have lemons on hand, you can still make these! – but do yourself and your mouth a favor and go and buy a few lemons (4-6). It really does make a difference.

Second – Mistakes happen. As you’ll see further down, I made a whoopsie tonight. Luckily I didn’t use all my lemons, and after stewing on the couch for 40 minutes I decided that these lemons were NOT going to best me (several other choice words may have been used). Cooking has much more leeway than baking. I had added some more lemon juice and zest as Dave and I like them a bit more tart, and figured I’d have to add some more flour to compensate for the extra fluid. While correct, I added FAR too much flour, and as you’ll see, it kind of turned into a lemon bar…quiche. Or something firm and partly eggy. I also think I over baked it. **Second batch turned out perfect!** We just kind of stood in the kitchen eating them 🙂

Now forwards, on to the land of lemon deliciousness! The recipe I used (both times) was Ina Garten’s recipe, with a few alterations. These take about 1.5 hours total to make.

Crust Ingredients:

8oz butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling Ingredients:

6 large eggs

3 cups granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons grated lemon zest (yay! zest! 4-6 lemons worth)

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup flour

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting at the end

Let’s bake!

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.

2. Cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Combine the flour and salt and – slowly! – add to the butter mixture until just combined.

4. Dump that out on a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball. The dough will seem sticky at first – just keep working with it, no extra flour is needed. The butter will keep it from sticking too bad to the counter (and eventually the pan. No need to PAM/spray it with anything).

5. Flatten the dough with floured hands and smoosh it into a 9×13 baking pan. Make sure to go up the sides a little bit, as it will retract slightly when baking. Also grab a fork and poke a few holes in it so that it won’t poof up (if it does, you can always poke the bubble before adding the filling and it should settle back down). Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. If this finishes before you finish making the filling, just take it out and set it on a wire rack but leave the oven on. Not a problem if the crust cools a little bit.

6. The filling is the easy part! Whisk all ingredients (sans confectioner’s sugar) together. Don’t whisk too crazily though, the less foamy bubbles you get the better (but the sugar will over everything anyways).

Okay so here’s where things went wonky the first time around. The initial recipe called to bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the filling was set (if you jiggle the pan, the filling doesn’t jiggle back). I baked it for 25 minutes, which turned out (for my oven) to be too long. It also could have been because I chose to add an extra half cup sugar to try to offset the little bit extra lemon juice I added. For batch #2, I left the flour alone. Lesson learned. The filling was also much darker in color (and no bubbles!) the second time around. I was too busy being frustrated to take pictures though. Whoops. So – bake for 20-25 minutes. You can even start checking around the 18ish minute mark if you want.

Now just wait for them to cool, cut, and sprinkle with powdered sugar!

Here’s what can happen when you get the ratios wrong and accidentally over bake: firm lemon bar weirdness. Tastes like disappointment and frustration.

And then after pouting on the couch and decided lemons would not best me this day(!), I made a half batch with what I had left. Success!

Now go make some of your own!