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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Luscious Lemon Bars - Perfect Treat for a Tea

Need a treat for a coffee date or afternoon tea?  These are a compliment to either.  Super easy to whip up and quite delicious!  I needed something to serve to a group of ladies one morning.  I pulled this recipe, found I had all the ingredients on hand (most are basic pantry items) and in no time had these bars cooling on a rack.  Really super easy - I had the crust baking, missed the lemon topping all while preparing breakfast for my crew and baking blueberry muffins!  And my SuperWoman cape was in the laundry that morning *wink*!
Luscious Lemon Bars (as found in the USA Weekend March 25-27, 2011)
For Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1 stick (8 Tbs) butter, melted but not hot

For Filling:
2 Large Eggs
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 only to reduce the sugar content a tad)
1 1/2 Tbs all-purpose flour
6 Tbs juice from 2 lemons
2 tsps finely grated lemon zest

Adjust oven rack to lower-middles position, preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Spray an 8X8 in baking dish with cooking spray.  Fit a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil (I used reg as that was on hand) inside baking dish with an overlap for a "handle".  This will be lift the bars out to cool.  Spray the foil with cooking spray.  Make sure the bottom of the foil covers up all sides about 2 inches.
Mix together flour, salt, powdered sugar in a medium bowl.  Stir in butter to form dough.  Press the dough into the bottom of the pan.  Use your hands (or the bottom of a measuring cup dipped in flour is suggested).  Bake until pale golden, about 20 minutes.
While crust is baking, whisk together eggs, sugar, flour, lemon juice and zest in a medium bowl.
Remove crust from oven.  Pour lemon mixture over baked crust.  Place back into oven, bake for an additional 20 minutes until the filling is "set".  Let cool for about 20 minutes.
Using the over-hanging foil as handles, carefully lift the bars from the pan and cool on a wire rack.  Once room temperature, dust with powdered sugar.
To dust with powdered sugar, simply pour a small amount of powdered sugar (about 1/4 cup) into a small mesh strainer.  Lightly tap the strainer while moving it over the lemon bars.
Once completely cooled, cut into squares.
Yields 16 bars.
Enjoy!

Shared at Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage, Seasonal Saturday, and Sweets for a Saturday

6 comments:

  1. Yes please! I'll have a couple.

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  2. Hi Emily,
    It is almost my tea time and I would just love one of your lovely Lemon Bars to have with my tea. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope to see you next week!

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  3. Mmm, lemony treats are my favorite. These look perfectly sunny and sweet. I have a sweet treat linky party on my blog (it'll open up tonight) and I'd like to invite you to stop by and link your bars up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com

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  4. Lovely! Lemon is such a favorite flavor of mine. Now following! Hope you can stop over to my blog hop too this weekend.

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  5. oh gimme! would love to sink my teeth into one of those luscious lemon bars :)

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