Lemon Squares

From joyofbaking.com. These are fantastic and easy to make; they’re especially good when made with Meyer lemons, if you can find them! Makes 16 2-inch bars.

Ingredients

Shortbread Crust

  • ½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • ¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (powdered or icing) sugar
  • 1 cup (130 grams) all purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon (1 gram) salt

Lemon Filling

  • 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
  • 1 tablespoons (5 grams) grated lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons (20 grams) all purpose flour
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • 2 large (100 grams) eggs at room temperature
  • ⅓ cup (80 ml/grams) freshly squeezed lemon juice approximately two large lemons

Garnish

  • Confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan with foil (or parchment paper) and butter the foil.
  2. In the bowl of your electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth.
  3. Add the sugar and beat until creamy smooth.
  4. Add the flour and salt and beat until the dough just starts to come together.
  5. Press onto the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for about 18 - 20 minutes, or until lightly brown around the edges.
  6. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the filling.
  7. In a bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar. Stir in the flour and salt.
  8. In another large bowl, whisk the eggs.
  9. Gradually whisk in the sugar mixture until smooth.
  10. Add the lemon juice and stir to combine.
  11. Pour the filling over the shortbread crust and bake for about 18-20 minutes, or just until the filling has set.
  12. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
  13. Refrigerate the bars for about one hour or until firm. This will make it easier to cut the Lemon Bars.

Dust with powdered sugar right before serving. Lemon squares can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for about three days.

Notes

16 March 2024: I made these today. Lined the pan with pan-lining paper. Baked the crust for 19 minutes on rack 2, rotating 180° after 10 minutes. I let it cool for a few minutes, and then added the filling. The crust had pulled away slightly from the parchment, but the filling did not flow underneath. However, be aware of this for the future. After the filling was added, I baked it for 18 minutes. Result was perfect.

23 March 2024: Today I made these with limes instead of lemons. Everything else was basically the same, although I baked the crust for an extra 30 seconds. The lime worked well and tasted great, but the color is a bit putrid, and the top had more bubbles in it, even though I was very careful to stir the filling very gently. A light dusting of powdered sugar improved the appearance!