Lemon Bars!

You can tell it's citrus season.  Go to the market and there are loads of oranges, meyer lemons, blood oranges, oro blancos etc.  Even on food blogs everyone has some citrus recipe posted.  I have a meyer lemon tree in my patio so I've been looking for a recipe so I could pick some lemons off of my tree.  Then recently on David Lebovitz's blog he had an entry about lemon bars using one whole lemon skin and all.  I had to try it.

lemon bars!

My friend L made this the night before following the recipe to a T.  She said that it was super tart and that the crust was...well...just mediocre (Sorry David!).  I like shortbread with my lemon bars so I ended up using a different recipe for the crust.  Also, because she mentioned that it was pretty tart I made the crust thick to balance out the tartness.

When mixed the dough will look smooth like this. 

No need to bring out the rolling pin.  Use your fingers and hands to press and flatten the dough out into the pan.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

While the crust is baking you can make the lemon topping.  Friend L used a blender and mentioned she could feel the pieces of skin and pith in her mouth.  I used a hand blender and made sure that the mixture was really smooth.

One whole lemon, extra lemon juice, and sugar.  Everyone should own a hand blender. 

After adding eggs, cornstarch, and melted butter.

Final Product

Recipe

Crust

recipe from Tartine

1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

 1 1/2 cups of flour

 6 oz butter at room temperature

 1 tsp vanilla extract (the original recipe does not call for vanilla.  I am just on a vanilla kick these days)

1.  Sift the powder sugar directly into the kitchen aid bowl.   Add the flour and mix on low.  Add the butter and vanilla.  Mix until the dough comes together.

2.  Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or golden brown.

Lemon Topping

recipe from David Lebovitz

1 lemon chopped(I used meyer lemons, David preferred to use regular)

1 cup of sugar (I used 3/4 cup.  David suggested using less if using meyer lemons)

3 Tablespoons of lemon juice

Blend all of these ingredients until smooth.

Add 3 eggs and mix with a whisk.

Sift in 4 teaspoons of cornstarch and whisk

Add 3 Tablespoons of melted butter and whisk. 

Set aside until the crust is done.  Once crust is done, reduce the oven temperature to 300.  Pour the lemon topping directly onto the hot crust.  Bake for 25 more minutes or until the filling is barely set.