Perfect Lemon Bars

As I was making my daily (sometimes twice a day) stroll through the local grocery store, the lemons seemed to jump out at me. They were gorgeous!

Bright, vibrant color (way more appetizing then they have been the past few months) and HUGE! They nearly stopped me in my tracks. The first thing I envisioned was tangy lemon bars. I haven't had a lemon bar in a long time. Quite honestly, I can't remember the last time I had one, sad I know.

Before our house burned in a California Wildfire, we had beautiful lemon trees. Homegrown fruits and veggies always seem to taste much better then any organic store bought. Luckily, we have a very small tree in our backyard that produces small lemons and was able to incorporate a few into my lemon bars!

I prefer my lemon bars to have a pretty similar shortbread to lemon topping ratio. I've tried many recipes, finding it was either too gooey, too tangy, too eggy, too thick, too bitter etc..

I just love these lemon bars and I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do!


Now...*drum roll* the Giveaway Winner is Zoe Packman! Congrats Zoe! I'll email you shortly with further info! :)

Don't fret if you didn't win....I have an awesome Sponsored Halloween Package full of lots of goodies in the next few days!

Lemon Bars
Recipe Adapted by Epicurean Mom


Ingredients


For Shortbread:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt

For Topping:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups white granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 large lemons, juiced
zest of 1 or 1/2 lemon (I used 1 whole lemon, since I love the tang)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x11 or 9x13 inch pan.

Sift the flour and confectioners' sugar in medium bowl. Add the salt and melted butter. Mix until well incorporated and, evenly press into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until just a light golden brown. Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk eggs until light, pale and fluffy. Add the sugar and salt, stir well. Sift the all-purpose flour into the egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Using a sieve, strain the lemon juice (adding some pulp if you desire) into the topping. Whisk in the lemon zest, until smooth. Pour mixture onto warm or cold shortbread.

Bake for 25-35 minutes. The topping should be set but slightly jiggly and a slight golden brown. Cool completely before cutting the bars into squares.