It's done.
I give it to you.
Trust me, you need it.
LEMON "SQUARES"
(my favorite thing is the original recipe says it serves 24 ... i still can't stop laughing)
You need a 13 x 9 x 2 pan. It's best if it's glass.
You pre-heat the oven to 325 if the pan is glass; if not, 350.
CRUST
3/4 cup butter or butter flavoured Crisco
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup powdered confectioner's 10x sugar
LEMON CURD
4 eggs
2 cups sugar (for a deeper flavor, I use 1 cup turbinado sugar and 1 cup white)
3 TEAspoons of lemon extract4 TABLEspoons flour
1 TEAspoon baking POWDER
a dash of salt
10 TABLEspoons of lemon juice, lemon concentrate is fine
- Cream together butter, flour and powdered sugar.
- If you are using real lemon juice, a couple of TABLEspoons of lemon zest makes the crust fun. It is, however, completely unnecessary for perfect Lemon Squares.
- Press the crust to cover the bottom of the (ungreased) pan. Sometimes it takes some pushing. Sometimes I need to flour my hands. Othertimes I need to put some butter on my hands, but never water; you want to keep this dry.
Bake for 18 minutes. I'm not kidding.
Start mixing the curd and then let it sit until the crust is ready. When you pull the crust out, take a whisk, swoop the curd for about 30 seconds and then pour it on the crust as you're still whisking, and put the pan back in the oven for 25 minutes. Period. Don't try and get cute with a perfect browning, it'll get sticky and gross and the edges will burn.
- Crack the four eggs and beat them like scrambled eggs, make sure it's all yellow, there will be a little froth.
- Mix in the 2 cups of sugar completely.
- Stir in the lemon extract.
- SIFT TOGETHER flour, powder and salt in to the curd.
- Stir together.
- Measure in your lemon juice and mix.
- Like I said, when you pull the crust out, whisk the curd up and continue whisking as you're pouring it out on to the crust. Put that in the oven for 25 minutes.
Let it cool before you cut it. I'm not kidding.
Don't sift powdered sugar over the entire thing; it seeps in to the squares. Sift powdered sugar over each slice individually before serving.
This gets better with each passing day, but it's not gonna last long.
Enjoy in good health.
P.S.: You're welcome ;-)
