Lemon Bars

WARNING - THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY RECIPE!  It's just the best darn lemon bars I've ever had so I had to share it with you.  This recipe is adapted from a recipe I found on Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  Jessica's favorite recipe site.

I made these yesterday.  I still had a few lemons left that my sister-in-law brought me from California and I wanted to use them well.  In a way they could really be enjoyed and appreciated for all their yellow sunshiny glory.  I think this did the trick.  I like this recipe more than others because of the bottom stuff that the lemon stuff sits on (these are technical culinary terms).  Usually that's my least favorite part of a lemon bar.  It still was, but it was the best one I've had yet.  I like my lemon pastries very very lemony.  If you do not like yours quite so lemony, change the tablespoons of lemon zest to teaspoons.  Still lemony, just not as lemony.  The zest is what gives you the majority of the lemon flavor, not the juice, so leave the juice alone.  Seriously, don't mess with it.

Again I apologize for the lack of a poorly lit photo.  Someday I will be technology savvy.  It will happen if I keep saying it will happen.

Ingredients:
Bottom stuff:
1 3/4 cups flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar (plus extra to dust on top)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon table salt (I used coarse sea salt. Don't do that.  Just use regular table salt)
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), at cool room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces

lemon part:
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons fresh grated lemon zest
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 large lemons worth)
1/3 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with foil and lightly grease the foil.
2. Stir together the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt.  Add the pieces of butter and cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Alternately you could do this in a food processor.  Just process 8 to 10 seconds then pulse until you get the texture you want.
3. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press into an even layer on the bottom.  Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes.  While it is refrigerating.  Place your oven rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
4.  Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes
5.  For the lemony goodness.  Whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt and flour in a medium bowl and then stir in the lemon zest, juice and milk to combine.
6.  Poor the lemony goodness onto the crust (it's important that it's still warm!) and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.  Bake for about 18-20 minutes until the filling feels slightly firm to the touch.
7.  Cool the bars to room temperature and lift foil out of pan.  Sift some powdered sugar over the top and cut using a bench scraper.  You can obviously cut using anything you want, but the bench scraper makes them hold a nice clean shape and you know how I like my food to be pretty.