Lorna's Lemon Bars

Remember when I asked you to pray for a beautiful girl named Lorna?  Well, now that beautiful girl named Lorna is living in the Pacific Northwest and she comes to my house for dinner a lot.  She has been dutifully eating anything I put in front of her, and despite my encouragement to request specific foods she always says she likes anything I make.  That's all very flattering and everything, but the only thing more fun than making good food for someone is to make good food that they specifically asked for, by name.  I got very excited last week when Lorna asked if I ever made lemon bars.
"Not recently," I replied, "but I do now."

I then proceeded to research all the lemon bar recipes I'd ever tried and thought about what I had liked about each of them.  I usually have similar criticisms of most lemon bar recipes which are, in no particular order:
-inefficient use of lemon product; why call for the juice but not the zest?  Flavor opportunity FAIL
-gooey filling; lemon bars should not have to be eaten with a spoon
-large amounts of flour in the filling; structure cop-out
-too much sugar in the crust; I like a sweet-and-salty contrast.  It is the beauty of good lemon bars.

So imagine my delight when, on the very day Lorna was coming over for dinner, Dave Lebovitz posted a recipe for Whole Lemon Bars.  A whole lemon cut up and tossed into the food processor?  These were going to be lemony and great.  I made them right away and as soon as they were cool, bit into one.  For the first three seconds I was all "Oh-man-these-are-so-freaking-good-and-lemony-and-- bitter.  Really bitter."  I thought maybe I'd just gotten a really pithy bite, so I tried another.  And another.  Every time, that burning bitterness at the back of my throat.  I was so disappointed I almost wept.  These lemon bars were so incredibly close to perfection, but I couldn't feed them to Lorna. 

The only thing more satisfying than finding a perfect recipe for something is finding a nearly-perfect recipe for something and improving on it.  Good food+ego boost.  Win win.  Dave's crust is light, crumbly perfection and the texture of the filling is perfect; the cut bars don't ooze at all, but they're not gummy.

I didn't really change these much.  I love the simplicity of using melted butter for the crust(Dave's idea) and the addition of vanilla(also Dave's idea); it contributes such a subtle loveliness to the flavor profile.  Also, while I almost always approve of using additional butter in just about anything, when I made the second batch I left the butter out of the filling to no ill effect.  I also left out the additional lemon juice, since I love the idea of using a whole lemon and just a whole lemon.  Something in me objects to partially-used lemon carcasses lying around my fridge.  I also wanted a lemon bar recipe that was un-fussy and would produce a straightforward, uncomplicated sort of lemon bar, the low-maintenance kind that says "My only purpose in life is to provide a few moments of unbridled pleasure."  The geisha of lemon bars.  There was perhaps a line somewhere back there that I've crossed, but it's too late now; the lemon bars have gone to my head. Finally, I fixed one tiny last flaw: I doubled the quantities.  If you are having only a small party or want to impose an admirable amount of self-control, simply halve the batch.  I can't tell you how long any leftovers will last, since they're always gone by the next day.

Lorna's Lemon Bars
Adapted from Dave Lebovitz

For the crust
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 cubes melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt(increase to a full tsp. if using unsalted butter)

For the topping
2 whole lemons
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
2 TB + 2 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt


Preheat the oven to 350 and line a 9x13(!) pan with foil.
Melt the butter in a medium-sized, microwave-proof bowl.  Add the 1/2 cup of sugar, the vanilla and salt, and stir to combine.  Add the flour and stir until just combined.  Press evening into the bottom of the pan, making sure that the crust comes all the way to the edges.  You don't need to build the crust up along the sides; the filling can be depended on to stay put.  Bake the crust on 350 for 20-25 minutes, until golden on top.

While the crust is baking, prepare the filling.  Zest the two lemons, then slice off the pith(the white foamy stuff).  Cut the flesh into chunks and put them into a food processor fitted with a metal blade.  Add the sugar and the zest and process until the chunks of lemon are very finely chopped, about 30 seconds.  Add the cornstarch and salt and process for 5 seconds.  Add the eggs one at a time, processing briefly after each addition.  Don't process excessively after the last egg has been added or you'll incorporate too much air into the filling and it will bake with a lot of bubbles in it.

When the crust is baked and still hot, pour the filling on top, reduce the oven temperature to 300 and bake until the filling is just set, 20-25 minutes.  I found when I baked the larger batch that the filling was done closer to the 20 minute mark.  Let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then lift the bars out using the foil and cool completely on a rack.  Dust with powdered sugar and cut into squares.

Serve them to the loveliest girl in the world.