A mother-daughter conversation on food and cooking (mostly)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Lemon Bars Again

I made lemon bars recently for the big Green family monthly dinner.

I wanted a very buttery crust, and a nice gloppy top, very lemony. But I think other people like them a bit less lemony. I've had some pretty bad versions where people used lemon extract. The family recipe is wonderful but fairly firm, if I remember correctly, and I wanted a more lemon-curdy experience. I also prefer granulated sugar to powdered sugar in crusts.

I pretty much followed the thinner version of the Smitten Kitchen recipe, doubled, with a lot more lemon zest and a bit less flour to make it goopier. I think in the future I would use the recommended amount of lemon zest unless I was making an entire pan just for myself. The extra zest really ups the lemon intensity but was maybe a bit much. Also, I used regular 2-inch deep glass and ceramic baking dishes, not a cookie sheet.