Hello! Thanks for stopping by to check out my latest recipe. I love lemon bars, and feel like they’re always WAY overpriced at bakeries, and sometimes aren’t tart enough (sometimes they’re way too sweet).
Also, this recipe actually came from a moment where I was baking cutout sugar cookies, but they wound up spreading too much to use. After one sheet pan full of super conjoined cookies, but still a delicious taste, I decided that perhaps, I could use the cookie dough for a crust of sorts. Well, I found a delicious lemon filling to accompany this delicious sugar cookie crust, and WOW, these were amazing!
I even cut them up into small 2” squares and they were a HIT! So fun to keep a little container of these in the fridge for a homemade treat or for an awesome gift, too. Hope you enjoy!
Crust Ingredients (Originally found here)
1 1/2 cups butter salted, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
1 tbsp lemon zest
3 cups all-purpose flour
Filling Ingredients:
1.5 C. sugar
1/4 C. flour
4 eggs
2 lemons, juiced (feel free to use limes)
Parchment paper
Flour for dusting pan
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 F degrees (feel free to bake at 350 if your oven doesn’t run super hot). Prepare 8x8” or 9x9” baking dish with non stick spray. Prepare baking pan by spraying non-stick spray, adding a strip of parchment paper that will help you remove the bars from the pan. Then, feel free to add more non stick spray to the paper, then a light dusting of flour.
Add the butter to the bowl of your mixer and blend until smooth on medium speed. Add the powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest to the mixer bowl and continue mixing on low until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour and mix until well blended. Feel free to gather dough into a ball or round shape to discourage air bubbles while baking.
Press dough into baking pan and smooth out to remove any air bubbles.
Bake crust for 12-15, just until crust is slightly done towards the center.
5. Remove crust from oven, let cool for 5-10 minutes, then pour lemon filing over crust, evening out with a large spoon or spatula. Bake 18-20 minutes longer, until edges begin to get brown. Feel free to cover with foil for last 5-10 minutes of baking time.
6. Let cool completely, then use the overhanging parchment paper to carefully remove the entire baked bar and place it onto a cutting board.
7. Use a knife with a sharp, straight edge to cut the bars in half each way, then two more times on each side (3 cuts per side, 6 cuts total). Feel free to add sifted powdered sugar over the top as well, before cutting.
8. Serve and enjoy!
