Nothing beats Classic Lemon Bars, am I right? Oh I’m right. So how is it in all of my years of baking I have never made classic lemon bars? I mean, I’ve never met a lemon bar I didn’t like so I’m not sure how this hasn’t been on my radar. Well it is now.
Lemon flavored treats are probably my favorite. A lemon bar screams summer with their sunny yellow brightness and that light dusting of powdered sugar. If you could bake lemonade the result would be a lemon bar.
Learning a new recipe…
Whenever I am trying something new I go to one of two places for direction and inspiration, the Cooks Illustrated Baking Book and or the King Arthur baking website. You just can’t go wrong with one of their recipes and I always learn something new!
In this recipe we are going to add a little corn starch and swap out our granulated sugar for powdered sugar. This will make a crust that melts in your mouth. To keep our crust from getting soggy during baking we are going to prebake it before adding the filling.
We are also going to wait until the last minute to juice and zest our lemons. I could tell the difference in the batch that I made from the ingredients picture where my zest and juice sat around for an hour at least. When I waited until the last minute, believe it or not, my bars were brighter and more lemony. The tartness of fresh squeezed lemon juice mellows quickly so to use it as fresh as possible is the way to go.
Lemon Bars should be pretty!
When I put the left over bars in the refrigerator the dusting of powdered sugar melted. I didn’t really like that. Going forward I think I will dust half of them right away for serving and wait to dust the second half for when I serve them a day or two later.
I am pleasantly surprised at how easy this recipe from Cooks Illustrated is and how much I learned from it. Why I have waited this long to bake one of my favorite treats is just beyond me. I’m making them now so better late than never I say!
Ok, let’s do this thing…
Step by step…
Classic Lemon Bars
Make your Crust
- 1 3/4 cups (263g) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (75g) powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup (30g) cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Directions
- Make a sling out of foil (taking two pieces of foil lay in your pan perpendicular to each other making sure that the piece on the bottom folds over the sides) in your 9X13″ pan. Spray with cooking spray and set aside.
- Sift together flour, sugar, cornstarch and salt.
- Either using a food processor or a pastry blender cut the chilled butter in to the dry ingredients until the consistency of cornmeal.
- Press into the bottom of your prepared pan pressing up the sides about 1/2″. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned.
While crust is baking, make your Lemon Filling
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 1/3 cups (267g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 lemons – 2 for zesting (2 teaspoons) and 3-4 for juicing.
- 2/3 cup lemon juice from 3-4 lemons
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Reduce oven temp to 325°
- Combine eggs, sugar, and flour.
- Zest and juice your lemons and add to filling with milk and salt.
- Pour over warm crust.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until lemon curd is set.
- Cool on a rack.
- Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
- Enjoy!
