Football and Lemon Bars

Did you know that during the winter months in Oregon there is a severe lack of daylight? This seasonal lull makes you want to stay inside, curl up with a book, and sit next to the men folk while they watch football. And if you’re me….. it makes you want to bake.

While I was baking yesterday some kicker missed a kick in the final seconds of the game but I was a little distracted by sifting flour and powdered sugar together for the most delicious of all crusts. Do I lose awesome girlfriend points for that?

Yesterdays foray into baking consists of lemon bars. I am not a huge fan of lemon. They are sour. The lemon juice burns tiny little cuts in your cuticles, which reminds me of my childhood when I was a terrible nail biter. I’ve never had a lemon meringue pie. I’ve never liked lemon scones. It took being an adult for me to enjoy lemonade that didn’t have strawberries in it and it took a friend who was superb at baking for me to try a lemon bar. Well, I’ve been hooked since then. I’m so particular in fact, that I won’t actually eat a lemon bar anywhere else. We all have our issues OK?

If you are against lemons bars make it anyway, even if you don’t like them someone will praise you for them. If you love lemon bars, watch out, you might want to make this recipe your new go-to.

Lemon Bars (adapted from a recipe by Mindi Forrest)

Crust
3 C Flour
1 C Powdered Sugar
1 ½ C cold butter (three sticks, cubed)
2 Tbsp Lemon Zest

Filling
6 Eggs
3 C sugar
Zest of 3 lemons (Um, I totally didn’t do this)
1 C plus 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice (I juiced 3 lemons and got just under 1 cup of juice and topped it off with bottled lemon juice)
½ C Flour
Additional powdered sugar for cooked bars

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Sift flour and powdered sugar together. Cut in butter and lemon zest. You can do this with a pastry mixer or use a food processor, like I did. Press dough into 9×13 pan (but only after you have sampled the dough, you know, for quality assurance). Bake crust for 15 minutes (or 21 if you’re me) until golden.

Beat eggs, sugar, zest, and lemon juice. Then beat in the flour. Pour filling over hot crust and bake for 40 minutes or until set. (This took 40 minutes exactly)

Sift powdered sugar over bars after they have cooled for about 15 minutes. Let the bars set up before cutting into them, otherwise they will be gooey like in my picture. I was impatient and losing natural light.