Lemon Bars

It's summer in Australia and citrus fruits are in season. I had a few lemons and eggs (I have chickens) that I thought I better use up and lucky for me I found a recipe in my Mormon cookbook called Lemon Bars. Well I like lemons and I like deserts so I couldn't go wrong.

For me this was a fairly complicated recipe as I had to make a base from scratch and then pour a lemon filling into it - it also got baked twice. Remember, I don't really enjoy cooking and am more on the fruits of the labour side (preferably others) of the fence when it comes to food.

Lemon Bars ingredients, imagine
raw sugar also in the picture.

You might notice from the ingredients picture that the flour is gluten free. Given I was making a pastry base I was worried it would be more of a lemon crumble so I added a non-animal binder called Xanthan Gum. First time I have tried to make a pastry (like many things on my Mormon cooking adventure) and I would report that it kind of worked and I probably didn't use enough. I forgot to put the sugar in the ingredients picture,  I used raw sugar as I simply find it less sweet and refined.

Other points to note: Powdered Sugar in the US is called Icing Sugar in Australia. I used unsalted butter because that is all I had and it made no difference to me.

Baked crust

I mixed up the base by pulsing the flour, xanthum gum, and butter in the food processor (using the pastry blade); easy stuff. I did not sift the flour as it was gluten free and you only ever try to sift gluten free flour once in your life, after that you don't try again. This is what the baked crust looked like; it was a bit soft and powdery to the touch and I was not sure if that was because it was only it first baking or the gluten free flour - I expected the latter.

Action shot of mixing the filling -
mixing on lowest speed.

Whilst the base cooled a little I made the lemon filling. That was easy, just mix the (raw) sugar and lemon juice (I also added the juice of one lime for the heck of it) and then mix in the eggs, baking powder and some flour.

I got quite worried at this point as the gluten free flour just went to lumps when added it to the wet ingredients; but as I let the Kitchen Aid do her thing the lumps broke up and all was fine.

When I poured the filling onto the base I had recollections of my Tim Tam Jello Slice (my own invention and a world first I might add) where the wet mixture seeped down the slides of the tin and leaked out the bottom (I was using the same tin where the base of it can be pushed up and out); but to my surprise the filling did not leak out at all. Tin seepage score update: jello filling "0", lemon filling "1".

Into the oven for another baking and then a sprinkling of icing sugar on top when finished to pretty it up and sliced into bars.

Baked, dressed and sliced into long bars.

Overall a success and a definite make again item. I think the gluten free flour worked all right but wheat flour would have been better. There is no way my attempt at this dish could be eaten with your fingers and not make a mess - I tried whilst no-one was looking.

I kept the finished product in the fridge and it only lasted two days (as it was finished - one day I ate almost an 8 inch bar for lunch - justifying it to myself that I was getting a serving of fruit); I felt mildly ill afterwards, in a good way.

Category	Lemon Bars
Ease of preparation	Not too bad
Time from prep to table	120 minutes - but best the next day
Taste	Lemony (surprise surprise) and not too sweet
Visual appeal	Excellent, bright and cheery
Radicality (i.e variation from my normal cuisine) out of 5	3
Recipe enhancement tips	Try lemons and limes, raw sugar instead of white sugar, eat them all yourself
Final assessment	No brainer, it’s a keeper