These lemon bars were the first truly delicious thing I ever made from the Meyer tree. It makes a full casserole-dish full, not just a brownie pan, so I like to freeze half of it for later. They store great in the freezer and are a different kind of tasty half-frozen in the summer. At the very least refrigerate these, they are made with eggs. The vanilla is optional, I don't notice much of a difference in flavor but some people say the vanilla fixes any funky egg flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 11/2 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, small as you can chop them (sort of optional)
- 4 eggs
- 11/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (sometimes I'll juice and zest while the first layer is baking. wash and dry lemons before squeezing them)
- zest of 2 lemons
- Optional: 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- In a medium bowl, blend or cut together softened butter, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 cups flour (and rosemary if you are using it) until well mixed. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan
- Bake 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and lightly golden.
- In another bowl whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice and lemon zest, and (optional) vanilla. Pour over the baked crust
- Bake an additional 20 min in the preheated oven or until knife in the center comes out clean. This will take longer if the crust had cooled off much. The bars will firm up as they cool.
