Recently I was thinking about what I would put on the menu at my future bakery in Door County. This is a pretty common train of thought for me, honestly, but as I was considering the options – and potential seasonal items – I realized there was a sort of massive gap in my baking resume. I had never made lemon bars before! This may not be a *huge* gap , but they are a very iconic dessert. And also, extraordinarily simple. So, in order to rectify this glaring experience gap, I made them twice: once, the classic way. The second time, I put a simple spin on it and made it with a chocolate shortbread base and an orange topping. Both were delicious!
Because this was such a simple recipe (as in, a lot simpler than those Old Fashioned donuts I made recently), my mind was able to wander while puttering around in the kitchen, and I spent a fair amount of the time musing about how ridiculously lucky I am.
I’ve said it a lot of times at this point, but I consider myself extraordinarily lucky in a lot of ways – I have a wonderful family, I have always lived comfortably, my needs have always been met and I have never wanted for anything, I enjoy my job, etc. But one thing I’m most thankful for is how much I have gotten to travel. My parents have always prioritized it, and it really shaped my worldview growing up. I was lucky enough to do a lot of my travelling as a kid, which means that I have a lot of memories of my travels, and they’re all from the unique perspective of a kid.
When you’re a kid you notice different things, and seemingly smaller things can make a much larger impact than you think. For example, when my family visited Italy and Greece, we visited a lot of museums and saw a lot of priceless art. But what I remember the most are the small things that I had never seen or experienced before. I remember donkey rides around a Greek island, an arduous hikes up a mountain to see a monastery that had a significance that was probably lost on me, and eating a gyro near the water while watching the “flying boats” coming into the harder. I also remember walking around the incredibly well preserved Pompeii with a great tour guide on a slightl
y rainy day, and my imagination running wild envisioning more clearly than ever what life might have been l like in ancient Rome. I remember oiling up my hands and poiking them into some dough when I made foccaccia for the first time in a cooking class in Tuscany.
And even smaller details from our travels stick in my mind – like the fact that one of the places we stayed in Australia had a lemon tree nearby, and I thought that was just the most fascinating thing. I had never seen lemons growing on trees before, and now I knew that some places there were just lemon trees growing in ordinary places. The next year, on a trip to Greece, my family had lunch at a waterfront cafe, my brother and I got ahold of our Dad’s camera and filmed ourselves doing an “intense lemon challenge.” The Intense Lemon Challenge consisted of us just sticking lemon wedges in our mouth and holding them as long as we could. It was really riveting stuff. But I thought it was very fun, and I remember the whole picturesque scene as we sat at that restaurant.
This was a really windy and very nostalgic tangent that has nothing to do with lemon bars… but a lot to do with lemons! All this is just to say, baking with lemons still makes me think of the lemon tree in Australia, and eating lemon slices with my brother in Greece, and I am very thankful for those memories. I really didn’t anticipate lemon bars making me so nostalgic!
Back to the baking instead of my vaguely tangential thoughts. Now I know how easy it is to make lemon bars! They’re just a shortbread base with an almost curd-like topping on top. Only two bowls needed, and the lemon part takes about five minutes to mix together. It was so easy that I wanted to riff on it with different flavors, so I switched out the lemon for orange, and then added cocoa powder and chocolate chips to the base. I’m sure there’d be plenty of other ways to switch it up – with other citrus fruits or… honestly probably any fruit juice. (Passion fruit maybe? Strawberry juice on a peanut butter cookie base?) Seems like there’s a lot to play with in the base concept.
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PinIngredients
For the Crust:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
For the Topping:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 8×8-inch baking pan, line with parchment paper (so that it over hangs slightly from the pan) and grease the parchment paper. Set aside.
To make the crust, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add flour and salt. Beat on low speed until dough is incorporated. Dough may come together, but if it remains shaggy, that’s fine too.
Dump the crust into the prepared pan and use your fingertips to press the dough into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until just browned around the edges.
You can make the filling while the crust is baking. In a medium bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest. Massage the lemon zest into the sugar until well incorporated and all the sugar is lemon-y. Add the eggs to the sugar mixture and whisk until well combined and slightly thick. Add the flour, lemon juice, and whisk until blended.
Pour the filling over the still warm baked crust. Return to the oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned on top and no longer jiggling in the center.
Allow to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled, dust with powdered sugar. Run a knife around the edges of the pan. Slice lemon bars into nine squares. Use the over hanging parchment paper to lift the squares out. To store the lemon bars, place them in an airtight container separated by wax paper layers.
Ingredients
For the Crust:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips
pinch of salt
For the Topping:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
Instructions
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 8×8-inch baking pan, line with parchment paper (so that it over hangs slightly from the pan) and grease the parchment paper. Set aside.
To make the crust, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Beat on low speed until dough is incorporated. Dough may come together, but if it remains shaggy, that’s fine too. Mix in chocolate chips if desired.
Dump the crust into the prepared pan and use your fingertips to press the dough into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until just browned around the edges.
You can make the filling while the crust is baking. In a medium bowl, add sugar and orange zest. Massage the zest into the sugar unil well incorporated and all sugar is orange-y. Add eggs to the sugar mixture and whisk until well combined and slightly thick. Add the flour, orange juice, and whisk until blended.
Pour the filling over the still warm baked crust. Return to the oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned on top and no longer jiggling in the center.
Allow to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled, dust with powdered sugar. Run a knife around the edges of the pan. Slice bars into nine squares. Use the over hanging parchment paper to lift the squares out. To store the bars, place them in an airtight container separated by wax paper layers.