It's that time of year. Lilacs are in bloom and lemon trees are producing their luscious fruits. Lucky for me my friend and horse trainer, Jeannette, has a Meyer lemon tree. This week she not only gave me quite a workout during my horse riding lesson (that left me very sore), but she also brought me a bag of fabulous Meyer lemons from her tree. They smelled so good!
I don't know which smelled better, the lilacs or the lemons.
I searched through several cookbooks for a lemon cookie or bar recipe and finally found one in Betty Crocker Baking Basics. It was quick and easy and turned out to be delicious. I am not a big fan of fruit- flavored desserts, being such a chocoholic, but this was really good. I will definitely make them again, only I'll double the recipe since this one only made about 16 squares--and they went
Lemon Bar Recipe:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temp.
1/4 cup powdered sugar (organic preferred)
1 cup granulated sugar (organic)
2 teaspoons of grated lemon peel
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
a few drops of yellow food color if desired
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar (to sprinkle when done)
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Mix first three ingredients--flour, butter and powdered sugar--in small bowl. I use the tips of my fingers and squeeze until it forms a fine sand-like texture; then press the mixture firmly and evenly on the bottom of an ungreased 9 inch square pan. Bake 20 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the granulated sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, baking powder, salt, eggs, and food coloring until light and fluffy--about 3 minutes. (I used my hand-held electric mixture rather than my stand mixer because of the small quantity. Also because of the high altitude up here, I added 2 Tablespoons of flour to this mixture as suggested.)
3.Pour this mixture over the hot crust spreading evenly. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool on a rack for at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into bars or squares.
*Another option...add 1/2 cup of flaked coconut to sugar-lemon-egg mixture to make Lemon Coconut Bars.
Thanks Jeannette! Bring me more lemons and I'll keep baking.
