Lemon Bars

LEMON BARS

It is summer time here in the Bay Area, and every summer my neighbor has an abundance of lemons on her lemon tree. This is the time when I get a full bag of lemons every week. To show her my appreciation, I made lemon bars for her and her whole family. In fact, I made so many lemon bars that I decided to share them with my surrounding neighbors. Everyone who tried them loved them and kept asking for the recipe. That was when I decided to share my recipe.

I simple love the recipe because its easy, quick and delicious. I adapted this recipe from a formula I learned while i was in culinary school. When I make this recipe at home, I have a juicer and I juice the lemons whole. This gives my lemon bars a more tart taste because of the lemon skin. I added the 2 additional tablespoons to the recipe for those of you who will just use lemon juice. Using lemon zest gives the bars the same flavor as if you had juiced them whole in a juicer. If you don't like your bars to taste too tart, you might omit the zest all together.

When you look at my recipe you may have noticed that egg wash is optional. I placed egg wash as optional because I have done my bars both with egg wash and without egg wash, and find that both works for me. Through experience, I add that layer of egg wash to ensure that the lemon filling does not get absorbed by the crust during the baking process. This step is optional.

I hope you will enjoy these bars as much as my neighbor, my friends, and family do. Personally, I prefer the lemon bars the next day. For me, they seem to just taste better that next day.
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Lemon Bars 
Yield: 24 bars

Sweet Tart Dough
Butter                    1/2 cup
Powered sugar     1 cup
Egg yolk                 2
Egg                          1
All purpose flour  2 cups
Egg wash               as needed (optional) 

​Lemon Filling
Sugar                      1 1/2 cup 
Egg                          4 
All purpose flour   1/4 cup
Lemon juice           2/3 cup
Lemon zest            2 Tablespoons
Milk                         1/3 cup
Salt                          1/4 teaspoon
Powdered sugar    as needed

Directions​​

• ​​Line pan with parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking spray.  I keep a few inches over the side of the pan to make it easier to remove, and easy clean up. 
• Cream the butter and powder sugar in a bowl of a large mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. 
• Slowly add the yolks and egg to the creamed butter mixture until smooth and free of lumps. Scrap down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
• With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the flour to the butter-and-egg mixture. I usually add half and let it mix until almost incorporated and then add the rest. Mix only until incorporated, DO NOT OVER MIX. The dough should be firm, smooth and not sticky.
• Pack the dough into the bottom of the pan evenly. Wrap well in plastic wrap and chill until firm, approximately 30 minutes. 
• Take out the chilled dough and prick the surface with a fork. Bake at 350F until the dough is lightly golden, about 15-20 minutes. 
• (optional) Brush the baked dough with egg wash and bake for another 3 - 8 minutes until the egg wash is set. 
• For the filling, whip the sugar and eggs just until smooth. The mixture will change to a very light yellow. Add the flour and mix until well combined. Then add lemon juice, zest, milk, and salt. Mix the contents well. 
• Pour the lemon filling onto the pre-baked dough. 
• Bake at 325F for 25 - 35 minutes, until set.
• Let cool on a wire rack for about 1 hour, then place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
• Once chilled, dust with powdered sugar and cut into triangles. Enjoy.

Storage 

• ​Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.  If they last that long. 

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