Lemon Bars

Until recently, I didn’t real­ize just how much I love lemon flavoured desserts. My hus­band will eat slices of lemon skin and all which makes me cringe just think­ing about it. You know the feel­ing, your toes curl up, your face puck­ers into all man­ner of strange expres­sions and your every nerve end­ing is on alert. Well that’s sort of how it feels to me!

Com­po­nents:

2 lb. 8 oz. Sweet Tart Dough, plain or coconut vari­a­tion
Egg wash, as needed
Lemon or Lime Filling

Sweet Tart Dough

1 lb. 8 oz. Unsalted but­ter, soft­ened
1 lb. 5 oz. Pow­dered sugar
1 pound Egg yolks
2 Whole eggs
3 lb. 8 oz. All-purpose flour

1. Cream the but­ter and pow­dered sugar in a large mixer bowl using the pad­dle attachment.

2. Com­bine the egg yolks and whole eggs. Slowly add the eggs to the creamed but­ter. Mix until smooth and free of lumps, scrap­ing down the sides of the bowl as needed.

3. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour to the butter-and-egg mix­ture. Mix only until incor­po­rated; do not over­mix. The dough should be firm, smooth and not sticky.

4. Dust a half-sheet pan with flour. Pack the dough into the pan evenly. Wrap well in plas­tic wrap and chill until firm.

5. Work with a small por­tion of the chilled dough when shap­ing tart shells or other products.

Lemon Fill­ing
1 lb. 6 oz. Gran­u­lated sugar
8 Eggs
2 ounces Pas­try flour
11 fluid ounces Lemon or lime juice
5 fluid ounces Milk
1/2 tea­spoon Salt

4 ounces Pow­dered sugar for garnish

1. Roll the chilled dough out on parch­ment paper to fit the sides and bot­tom of a half-size sheet pan. Prick the sur­face of the dough with a fork and bake at 350°F (175°C) until the dough is light golden, approx­i­mately 15 min­utes. If cracks develop dur­ing the bak­ing process, patch with the left­over dough and return briefly to the oven.

2. Brush the baked dough with egg wash and return to the oven for 3 min­utes or until the egg wash has set.

3. To pre­pare the fill­ing, whip the sugar and the eggs just until smooth. Whisk in the pas­try flour until well com­bined, then add the lemon juice, milk and salt.

4. Pour the lemon fill­ing in the pre­baked shell.

5. Bake at 325°F (163°C) until set, approx­i­mately 25 minutes.

6. Cool, then cut into 1 1/2 inch × 1 1/2 inch (4 × 4 cm) squares. Dust lib­er­ally with pow­dered sugar.