Once in a while, I bake foods that I know that I won’t like. These lemon bars are among them. I just don’t love lemon enough to eat gobs of it in one dessert. A sprinkle of zest here or a dash of juice there is fine, but almost any food that is centered on lemons will not be on my top 10 list. Or even my top 20. That said, baking foods that I don’t like presents an interesting challenge: how do I judge if they are good? I have extremely high standards, so I wanted to know if these bars were worth blogging about. My friend Joy is a lemon-bar lover famous for her own lemon bar recipe. She says these are great, which means that if you like lemon bars, you’ll love these.

These would be super cute wrapped up in brown paper squares and gifted to your loved ones. Just put a piece of waxed paper under the lemon bar or else the butter from the shortbread layer will seep into your brown paper. I speak from experience here.

This recipe is from Chicken and Egg, an absolutely gorgeous book that everyone should flip through. The pictures and layout are stunning and the recipes are simple and approachable.

Computer woes are the bane of my existence. The easy viewing & printing feature that used to be included on my posts has now vanished. I hope to see it again sometime soon!

for the crust: 

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

for the filling: 
4 eggs plus 2 yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)
1 tbsp grated lemon zest

powdered sugar for sprinkling

To make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan or coat with nonstick cooking spray. Beat together the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed. Add the butter and beat until it’s distributed throughout and the mixture is moist and crumbly. Sprinkle over the bottom of the baking pan. With lightly floured hands, press the dough into the bottom of the pan to form a crust. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 300F.

To make the filling: While the crust is baking, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks in a medium bowl until blended. Add the granulated sugar and flour and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the lemon juice and then the lemon zest. Pour the filling over the hot crust.

Bake the lemon bars at 300F for 15-20 minutes, or until set. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into 24 bars, and sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.