Lemon bars overdose

(Photo by EvaSan)

Yum, don't those look delicious? If you had asked me that question last week, I'm not sure if I would have given much enthusiasm. I've rarely eaten lemon bars in my life. Earlier this week, after making a batch from scratch for the first time, I can now certainly give a resounding yes! There are a lot of recipes for lemon bars out there; I ended up using one from Joy of Baking:

Lemon Bars
Recipe Courtesy of Joy of Baking
Yields 16 bars (2 inches each)

Shortbread Crust:
1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 C confectioner's (a.k.a. powdered or icing) sugar
1 C all-purpose flour
1/8 t salt
Lemon Filling:
1 C granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 C fresh lemon juice (approximately two large lemons)
1 T grated lemon zest (the yellow outer rind that contains the fruit's flavor & perfume)
2 T all-purpose flour
Garnish:
Confectioner's (a.k.a. powdered or icing) sugar

Tip: Always remove the zest first before halving and squeezing the lemon. Use a fine strainer to remove the seeds and pulp from the juice.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, an 8 x 8 inch (20 x 20 cm) pan.

2. Shortbread Crust: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt and beat until the dough just comes together. Press onto the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the filling.

3. Lemon Filling: In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar and eggs until nice and smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to combine. Fold in the flour. Pour the filling over the shortbread crust and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling has set. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 

4. To serve: Cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar. These are best eaten the day they are made but can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for a day or two.

From what I've read in different lemon bars recipes, they seem basically the same, minus the measurements and small differences, such as using baking powder instead of flour for the filling. One of the things that I like about lemon bars is that they're really easy to make: The ingredients are essentially things you may already have (which was the case for me). The process takes less than 1 hour, and most of that hour is when your concoction is in the oven (That hour, though, doesn't include refrigeration after it's all done, if you want your lemon bars cool instead of warm).

Here's a picture of my lemon bars (the filling with the crust) fresh from the oven before they got powdered with sugar:

I didn't have a 8 x 8 inch pan, so I ended up with a 8 x 11 pan, making 20 bars (some larger or smaller, depending on you look at it, than others). I thoroughly enjoyed eating the leftover crust dough from the bowl and spatula that I used for mixing, as well as getting the remnants from the dish after I powdered and cut up the lemon bars before putting them into containers. If you want to make a good presentation, you may need to powder the individual bars again, in case the powdered sugar came off. Here's a picture of the completed yummy, lemony goodness (excuse the quality of my cell phone's camera):

Now, who overdosed on lemon bars? Why, it was my boyfriend! After my previous experiences with lemon-related food, I found out from his mom that he likes lemon bars. After seeing how simple the recipe was, I decided to give lemon bars a shot just for the heck of it. When I mentioned to him earlier in the day that I made lemon bars, he decided to come over after his internship was done. His more than 1 hour commute was just enough time for me to make a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a few items, rush back, and cook something on the fly for dinner. No, we're not just going to eat lemon bars for dinner:

The bottom of the picture shows fried egg in toast. My boyfriend snacked on half of the (formerly) heart-shaped bread on top, while I was finishing up making mine. The top of the picture shows something I created from what I had on hand, plus that quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a few things, beans & rice with ground turkey & veggies:

• In a pan with oil, I cooked chopped garlic and onions on the stove on medium heat for 5 minutes. Then I added 2 small chopped up jalapeño pepper, 1 drained can of kidney beans, 1 small drained can of corn kernels and 1 can of diced tomatoes with the juice to the same pan. 
• After cooking that for five minutes, I added ground turkey to the pan, crumbling it with my cooking utensil. I then added leftover cooked white rice to the mixture. Salt, black pepper, red chili flakes and curry powder are added to taste. 
• When the meat is all cooked (which should take a few minutes), it's done. It's a colorful dish with a little kick to your tastebuds, and it can be a whole meal (generously serving 4 people) or a side dish (for maybe 6).

My boyfriend said it was delicious, but he was even more impressed with the lemon bars. In fact, he probably had about 10 until his poor tummy hurt! It was interesting to me that he had so many bars in one evening because he's the type of person who is concerned about portion sizes and eats small snacks or meals throughout the day when he's hungry, instead of three square meals per day at the requite times. Apparently, lemon bars are a weak spot of his. For me, making lemon bars helped me to better appreciate this treat. I can definitely add this to the list of yummy lemon dishes.