On a weekend afternoon recently, a wonderful friend of mine headed my way for an afternoon of baking. Adrien is beyond talented at many things, photography being one of them. She tagged along with me for the day seeing the whole process from start to finish (taking photos and being hilarious) of how I make my one of my favorite desserts, lemon bars. Thank you for the wonderful memories and photos Miss Adrien, you are a delight.
I modified these bars with a crust that uses pine nuts to sub out for some of the flour. The result is a simple nutty flavor with a tangy lemon topping…perfection to me!
A trip to the local store to gather supplies.
Ingredients;
Crust
3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp cold butter cut into cubed pieces
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts, roughly chopped
1/8 tsp of salt
1tbsp butter additional butter for greasing pan
Lemon Filling
4 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (from two large lemons)
1/3 cup of whole milk
1/8 teaspoon of salt
Directions;
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.
Place flour, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, pine nuts, and salt in a food processor; pulse a 4 times to combine.
Add butter and canola oil. Pulse 6 to 8 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal.
Place mixture into the bottom of an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish rubbed with butter; press firmly into bottom of pan.
Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.
While the crust bakes, prepare the lemon filling.
Combine the eggs, sugar and flour in bowl, lightly beat all together with a whisk.
Stir in lemon zest, juice, milk and salt. Stir together till combined.
When crust is done, reduce the oven temperature to 325, stir filling together a few more times before pouring over warm crust.
Return the crust and filling into the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes. The filling should appear to be slightly firm.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least an hour at room temperature. This is the most painful hour of waiting....
I like to then place the bars in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to make sure they are nice and chilled....again more painful waiting.
To finish the bars, take a few tablespoons of powdered sugar and place in a sifter. Lightly tap the sides of the sifter while you have it over the bars to sprinkle.
Slice across from side to side and top to bottom 4 times, yields 16 bars.
Enjoy!!!!!
*you can cut these to a size of your preference, when sharing I cut into 16 pieces, when it is just in my house there is no proper dimension I use, I go by as much as I want.....