When life gives you lemons, make lemon bars.

Around our house, the kiddos some of us have a hard time waiting to pick the fruit when the time is right.  Seriously, who wouldn’t want to pick a bright yellow lemon or a deep red strawberry?  They almost beg a kid to pick them with their flamboyant garden attire. So, these lemons got picked and were thankfully a teeny tiny bit green and not half green.  I ran inside simultaneously explaining to my littlest man which color we are waiting for them to be and also scheming what I was going to make.  As kind of an informal tradition, I like to make lemon bars with the first batch of lemons I get just because they seem to have such a loving history with most people I tend to bake for, including my dad.

Zesty Lemon Bars

Measure dry ingredients, cube butter, and stare at the radiant lemons because it’s about to be gone.

Zest the lemons.

Add the crust dry ingredients to a food processor or a bowl for hand-blending.

Add the cubed butter and zest.  Pulse until mixture forms small beads.

Like this –^

Press into a 13×9  dish on the bottom and up half of the pan’s side.  Bake for 25 minutes.

While the crust bakes, wisk butter and eggs together.

It should look like this –^  Then, gentle stir in the lemon juice,  flour, and zest.

When the crust is done, turn the temperature down to 300, add the filling, and bake for about 30 minutes.

note: I was not patient and did not wait until it lowered all the way which is why the tops of my bars have the texture they do.  I knew this and almost wanted it :).

Enjoy!  I obviously did.  Make sure you share some with some friends and neighbors.

This recipe was adapted from the Serious Eat‘s “Zesty Lemon Bars”

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 lemon, zested

1 cup butter, cold (cut into 1/2 in cubes)

Lemon filling:

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 lemon, zested

Beware

of

leg monkeys

and

snitchers.