Spring Recipe: Lively Lemon Bars
March 24, 2021
If your break rooms are anything like ours, they’re overflowing with lemons from the yards of nice coworkers. If Janet in accounting’s lemon tree is pumping out more fruit than you know what to do with, enjoy this lovely lemon bar recipe for a delicious and refreshing sweet treat to bring a little bit of spring brightness to your table!
Ember’s Lemon Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups All-Purpose Flour (2 ½ cups for the crust and ½ cup for filling)
- ⅔ cups Powdered Sugar, plus more for dusting
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¾ cups Unsalted Butter, melted
- 3 tbsp Lemon Zest (about three lemons)
- 3 cups Sugar
- 8 Large Eggs
- 1 cup Lemon Juice
- Optional: Vanilla
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 350 degrees and line a 9” x 13” baking dish with parchment paper.
- Whisk 2 ½ cups of flour with salt and powdered sugar. Pour in the melted butter and mix until combined. Optional: Add a dash of vanilla. We highly encourage you to experiment with how much vanilla–it’s one of our faves!
- Press the dough into your lined pan and make a flat layer—Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. The crust should be a light golden brown when finished.
- While the crust is baking, we’re going to get zesty. Add the sugar and the zest of three lemons to a food processor. Pulse until the zest is fully incorporated and the sugar is a light yellow color. If no food processor is available, mix the zest with the sugar in a bag or bowl.
- Add the sugar and remaining ½ cup of flour to a large bowl and mix well. Optional: Sift the mixture and remove the zest chunks. We don’t mind zest chunks, but if you prefer silky smooth lemon bars, this is the way to go.
- Add the lemon juice and eggs, then mix until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the filling onto the crust, then transfer to the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Turn the pan after the first 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 1 hour.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours. The lemon bars, not you. You should go chill in your garden while you wait.
- Dust with powdered sugar and cut into bars using a knife. Be sure the blade is damp before starting, and clean and re-wet the knife after each cut to keep it cutting smoothly.
- Serve at room temperature or chilled. We all like to chill around here, so we could go either way.
We hope this lemon bar recipe helps you enjoy the fruits that are dropping off trees in the hundreds during this time of year. Do you have any citrus recipes you would like to share? Let us know in the comments.
Please! We need more things to make with all these lemons!
Check out our blog for more upcoming seasonal recipes, plus regular gardening tips and product highlights!
