Lemon bars

Mar 11 ’08

Filed in food

I wish that I had a photo of these to show; they were just too delicious, though, and didn't last long enough. The addition of a little bit of almond meal to the crust gives them a complexity of flavor that plays very nicely with the clean tartness of the lemon curd.

Lemon curd is tricky

Lemon curd is a very difficult beast. It's too easy for it to be off-balance: the butter, sugar or tartness from the lemons can easily dominate, and then it's just good, not sublime like it can be. There are no hard and fast secrets for getting the balance right, either, as it depends entirely on the particular lemons you're using. As their sugar levels vary, the amount of juice and sugar you'll need to use to balance out the curd will change. This means that you should taste the curd while it's cooking, so that you can balance it out at the last minute if it needs it.

The second tricky part to a good lemon curd is making it so that it sets properly, and doesn't have those nasty little bits of egg white that cook too soon and gum it up. I came across a discussion of lemon curds online somewhere, and one of the participants had a suggestion which worked perfectly: that's the basis of the recipe below. The secret is two-fold. First, you cream the butter and sugar like you're making a cake. Second, you must stir the lemon curd constantly while it's cooking. When you first put it on the heat it will be chunky. As you stir, it will go smooth. It will take several minutes for the transition to smoothness to start, but once it has started it will be quite rapid. This is when you have to taste it to correct the balance of flavors. Similarly, when it thickens it will happen very rapidly. The whole cooking process should take no more than 10–15 minutes.

Recipe

Crust

½ cup flour ½ cup almond meal ¼ confectioner's sugar ½ melted butter

Curd

¼ cup butter, cut into pieces 1¼ cup sugar 4 eggs, lightly beaten ¾ cup lemon juice 1 tbsp. minced lemon zest

First, we prepare the crust:

Preheat the oven to 350°F Sift together the flower, almond meal and powdered sugar Stir in the melted butter Press into the bottom of an 8-inch baking pan Bake for 20 minutes

While the crust is baking, let's make the curd:

Cream the butter Gradually beat in the sugar Beat in the eggs Mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest Cook over a double-boiler, while stirring constantly The curd will thicken: it is done when it coats the spoon you're stirring with, and you can use your finger to draw a line through the curd on the spoon that stays

Now assemble the bars:

Pour the curd into the pre-baked crust Return the bars to the oven for another 25 minutes When baked, let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate Before serving, cut into 2-inch squares and sprinkle with powdered sugar

I brought a pile of these into work and they vanished: they're quite tasty.

Conversation in progress…

1
On March 14th Katy said:
Ooooh, Brent. I love lemon bars! I've made them according to a slightly different recipe that didn't involve making lemon curd first, just a egg-lemon-sugar mixture that wasn't cooked first. Yours sound divine... I'd like to get an in-person lemon bar lesson sometime :).
2
On March 16th Brent Miller said:
All you've gotta do is come back to visit Portland, and I'll gladly show you how. It doesn't look like we'll be able to make it to Norway any time soon. :(