Lemon Square Experiment

For years I thought that there was no such thing as a good or bad lemon square. There are lemon squares and they are good. Period. You can't really mess 'em up.

Boy was I wrong. About a week and a half ago I had the most terrible lemon squares I can remember. Somehow the proportions were all wrong. The crust was thin and brittle and almost crunchy, the filling was so full of sugar that it stuck to itself...the lemon was completely overpowered by the taste of what I think must have been confectioner's sugar (and not the cute kind that you put on the top.) So I started thinking to myself...what makes the pefect lemon square??

My conclusion? It's all about the crust. It has to be kind of soft and chewy and a little bit thicker than average, to the point where crust and lemon filling sort of flow into one another. Obviously the lemon is important too...I think as a general rule, the lemon filling should be sweet but not oversweet, a little bit tart, the lemon should be the dominant flavor (duh).

So with all these things in mind, I want to propose an experiment. THE ideal lemon bar!

I'm going to start with a shortbread crust:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened.
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups plus all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I'd also like to experiment with brown sugar)

Cut butter into the ingredients using a food processor or by hand (for those of you who like me have no food processor and have to work it the old fashioned way.)

Then put that in a 9x13 inch pan. Bake about 20 minutes at 350 or so until its a bit brown.

The filling:

So the best lemon bar filling has lots of eggs and lots of lemon and just enough sugar (again, I want to experiment with brown sugar and honey instead of granulated) ...

Beat together 4 EGGS, with about a half cup (I use up to 3/4 cup) of fresh lemon juice, 1 1/2-2 Tb lemon zest (depending on how much you like lemon), 1.5 cups sugar (white or brown), and 1.5 tablespoons flour.

Pour it all into the crust, and bake until it's set. Let cool and THEN put the confectioner's sugar on (if it's not cool already, the sugar will melt. )

So I'm going to give this a try later on today or maybe later this week(depending on whether I can find lemons and/or flour today) and see how it works...especially with the brown sugar substitution.

If you feel like trying this at home, let me know how it turns out!

Jenny