Lemon bars just in time for summer heat (recipe)

What do you do when life throws you a bunch of lemons? You make lemon bars!

I have lots of lemon love in the summertime. The bright freshness of lemons hits home on those hot days.

We have been blessed so far this year with some very cool evenings. I myself have been wrapped in a blanket on my porch warming up with some hot tea and a good book these past several evenings. All that is about to change! The 90-degree temperatures are headed our way.

Lemon bars are pretty simple. The most important thing to remember when making lemon bars is to only use the amount of lemon juice called for. A little more lemon juice will not make it more lemony … it will ruin your dessert. So measurements are important for this recipe.

Ingredients

Shortbread Base

• ½ cup (softened) butter

• ¼ cup powdered sugar

• 1 cup flour

• 1 pinch of salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Lemon Filling

• 4 large eggs

• 1 ½ cup granulated sugar

• ½ cup flour

• ½ cup lemon juice (fresh)

• Zest of 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The shortbread crust gets made first. While this bakes you can throw together the lemon filling.

Use a hand or stand mixer and mix on medium speed the butter, and powdered sugar until combined. Then add the flour and salt and beat until a soft dough forms. Take a 9x9 baking pan and pat the dough evenly onto the bottom. Make sure you grease your pan first. Then bake for 18-20 minutes.

While that bakes you can start on the lemon filling. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs, granulated sugar, baking powder, fresh lemon juice and zest. Then slowly whisk in your flour. Make sure this is mixed up extremely well so that you don't get flour clumps. Pour this filling into your cooled crust and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the filling is set and no longer jiggles when gently shaken.

I like to just stick mine in the refrigerator after they have cooled a bit from the oven. This way they are properly set, and it makes cutting them into squares that much easier. We will give these bars a light dusting of powdered sugar for the finishing touch. Tag me on Facebook with your love for lemon pictures! Have questions? Shoot me an email at Tara@The-Mindful-Realtor.com

Tara’s Tips and Tricks

• Don’t experiment with the measurements on these lemon bars. Nothing makes me sadder than working hard on a baked good and then it falls apart or doesn’t come together because I was trying to get creative.

• Line your baking pan with parchment paper. After the lemon bars cool in the fridge you can just pull them out with the parchment paper, and it makes it so much easier to cut evenly with a knife, and to get them out of the pan.