Lemon Bars
Date Completed: 3/28/2021
This recipe comes from the Bar Cookies chapter of America’s Test Kitchen The Perfect Cookie. A pretty spring day requires a pretty spring cookie, and these lemon bars perfectly fit the bill.
They didn’t take long to put together, but they did require a little prep. I wanted to have all of the ingredients ready to go because the recipe says to pour the filling over the crust right after it comes out of the oven. I had to time the execution to a T.
Zesting and juicing the four lemons took the longest. All the other prep went quickly. Then I started on making my crust.
Flour, sugar, a dash of salt, and a stick of butter (in pieces) all go into a food processor. Luckily, my tiny food processor had just enough room to accommodate this.
You combine those ingredients and then pour into a foil-lined baking tray. The dough gets pressed down then baked for about 20 minutes. That’s when the countdown begins!
In order to complete the filling in time to pour it straight onto a hot crust, I started with whisking my eggs and yolks in a saucepan. About a cup of sugar gets whisked in next, followed by the lemon zest and juice. You can see I pulled off a much better action shot of the sugar-pour than the lemon juice-pour.
Four tablespoons of butter are added and stirred until they melt. The stirring over medium-low heat continues until the mixture gets to 170 degrees. I tried using both an instant-read thermometer and a candy thermometer to get an accurate reading. The recipe says this heating process should only take about 5 minutes, but I found it took about twice that long.
Once the mixture thickened up and hit 170, I poured it through a mesh strainer into a bowl. Garrett helped me hold the hot pan and we got the whole mixture through the strainer just as the oven timer went off for the crust. I hastily mixed in the cream and poured it over.
The bars bake for about 10 minutes and then cool on the counter for about 2 hours. I served mine with a little powdered sugar on top.
Taste Report:
Bright and fresh, these little bars pack a puckering punch. I loved the contrast of the sweet and buttery cookie crust underneath. There’s definitely no doubt that these have a lemon-forward flavor. I’d absolutely make these for a spring party!
Mess Report:
I finally got photographic evidence to back up my mess report! I’ll let it speak for itself.
Happy Spring!