Usually my christmas baking list consists of Cappuccino Flats and lemon squares with maybe a little something extra on the side just to add some variety.  This year however, I had a cookie exchange party to go to.  I decided to try some new recipes for that (and didn't want to share my cappuccino flats cookies!) and after it was all said and done I had waaaaayyyy too much baking goin' on.  I just couldn't bring myself to do the lemon bars because they are special to me and need to be appreciated fully on their own.

I don't know why but I love the whole lemon/sweet thing.  Maybe it's the colour, maybe the tartness or maybe even the lovely savouriness of the crust.  I don't know, I just love it.  I need to try making lemon curd and getting that into my repertoire.  (that's just an aside as I'm thinking with my fingers here)  So just a couple of days before Christmas I had these organic meyer lemons that I got from the food box and they were dying because I hadn't used them up.  I had to get moving so I went ahead and zested and juiced them and then froze the lot of it 'cause I just couldn't bring myself to make anything else sweet at the time.

Ok, sorry I did't realize at the time that I left the stupid stickers on the lemons!

This past weekend though we were more or less (and most lusciously) housebound thanks to no dance class, no piano lessons, 10 cm of snow and two really tired parents.  This left me with lots of time to get these lemon bars finally looked after.  Good thing too because a couple of days after that I came down with some sort of cussing stomach bug that had me off food for about 36 hours.  I'm really trying to stay positive (this year) so all I'm going to say is that there is always a silver lining and stomach bugs are a great short term weight loss strategy.  Done and Dusted.


For the record, I didn't have the appropriate amount of granulated sugar for the lemon crap so I substituted some muscovado sugar which admittedly isn't as sweet AND changed the colour a little.  So I feel somewhat cheated and I think that I need to make them again just so that I can be sure that I've 'done right' by the lemon bars... I'll keep ya posted.


Lemon Bars (adapted from Ina Garten's recipe)
makes about 36 squares

Crust:
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp salt

Filling:
1 cup fresh lemon juice
zest from all the lemons used to get the fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 eggs
2/3 cup flour

Icing sugar for dusting.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease an 9x13 inch baking dish with butter. (Truth be told I used a little less than the 9x13 by rolling up some aluminum foil but it was a bit of a stretch so I wouldn't exactly recommend it - just use a slightly smaller pan if you want to go 'less')
In a large bowl combine the butter, sugar, flour and salt.  Cut everything together until it forms a crumbly ball.  Place the dough in the greased pan and press down until it's covered the bottom of the pan and is packed and looks like a crust (!).  Bake for 15 - 20 min or until the crust is just browning at the edges.
Remove from the oven and cool slightly.

In a large bowl combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, eggs, sugar and flour.  Whisk until everything is incorporated and the sugar has dissolved.  Pour into the slightly cooled pan with the crust in it.
Bake the whole thing for 30 - 35 min.  Until the lemon stuff looks 'set'.  Remove from the oven and cool for about 10 min.  Once the squares are cooled, dust with icing sugar and cut into squares.