Barefoot Contessa: 2. Marilyn: 0. --- I can live with that.

I remember the first time I ever tasted lemon bars. It was at church on a Sunday evening, just after a baptism, and there were refreshments being served in the "multi-purpose" room at our stake center. I was maybe about 12 at the time, and being a quite picky eater, I was very skeptical about unknown new foods. You never know if it might taste nasty. (I know -- at age twelve, that's how I thought!)

 

But I think I was hungry that evening, and they looked harmless enough. So I tried them.... loved them .... and wondered why my mother didn't have this amazing recipe?? I mean, what's not to like? Shortbread crust, creamy-dreamy lemony filling, and dust the whole thing with powdered sugar? It's a slam dunk!

 

Well, it turned out that Mom did have the recipe. It's one of those recipes that everybody has, right? Like chocolate chip cookies.  I just can't figure out why she never made them.

 

So when I moved out of the house, the Lemon Bars recipe was among those that I faithfully copied onto my 3x5 recipe cards, to make sure I would have it for posterity. And I've used the same recipe from that time forward.

 

Until now.

 

And it's all because I clicked on a link to the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Lemon Bars.  I have to say that, having grown up with my frugal mother, a lot of the time, we didn't keep "real" ingredients on hand. My mother was all about imitation stuff, if it meant that she could save a few pennies, or dollars. So, I grew up on margarine, not butter. Cool Whip, not whipped cream. Imitation vanilla extract. A product called "IMO", instead of sour cream.  And bottled lemon juice.

 

In fact, I don't think my mom even had a citrus reamer.

 

It took some time, but I gradually shook off most of my mom's imitation approach to food, and I tend to use the real thing more and more. But, I usually don't keep fresh lemons on hand. For the few teaspoons at a time that I usually use, it wasn't worth it to me. I just bought bottled juice.

 

So, way back around graduation time, we'd bought lemons for that weekend, and I had some leftover. It was the perfect opportunity to try the Contessa's lemon bar recipe, and do it the "real" way.

 

 

 

(My recipe card has seen better days..... scribble, stained ....  ha!!)

 

Knowing it could take a while, juicing the lemons was first on my list.

 

 

I still don't have a reamer, but I rolled them on the counter, and microwaved them for a few seconds to help get the most juice out of them. It worked great.

(You have to remember to zest them before juicing though ........)

 

Mixed up the dough for the shortbread base: butter, flour, sugar and a bit of salt. (A variation from my original recipe, which uses powdered sugar, not granulated.

 

 

... and then spread it in the baking dish. I've really started using my Pyrex glass dishes for anything that is going to be sliced in the pan it was cooked in. It just makes my life so much easier! Why didn't I think of it before?

 

 

And then press it down with your hands: 

 

And be sure to leave lots of fingerprints on that dough. Right?

Not. Just try to get it even.

 

Then you bake just the crust. 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. And while it bakes, you pour yourself an ice-cold cherry limeade  uhhhh, ... mix up the filling ....

 

(Alyssa had made the limeade .... it was super yummy! And that color is amazing!)

 

So, the filling is eggs, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and flour. The one thing I've learned about lemon bar filling is not to overdo it with the mixer. You want it all completely mixed through, but you're not trying to make it light and fluffy. Light and fluffy is the opposite of creamy-dreamy that we're going for here. So only mix until it's all combined, then stop.

 

 

When the crust is done (which is actually only half cooked, and that's the way you want it), it will look very light as it comes out of the oven:

 

Then you carefully pour the filling over the hot crust. Before pouring it, I would use your rubber scraper to stir up any sugar that may have settled to the bottom of the bowl while it was waiting.

 

So, carefully......

 

ARRGH!!!! Did you not LISTEN to me???? I said "CAREFULLY"!!!!

 

So yes. This is what happens when you mess up lemon bars. After all that work juicing and zesting, I was kinda sick about the bars not being absolutely perfect. Here's the deal: Pouring the liquid filling mixture into the pan of still-hot, half-baked shortbread crust should happen gently, apparently. I poured all at once into just one area of the crust, and the filling broke up portions of the crust off the bottom of the dish, which were then floating around in the liquid filling, and some of the filling went down to the bottom of the dish, with no crust under it.

 

I've never had that happen before -- it was a first. There was nothing to do about it at that point, but shove that baby into the oven and bake it off anyway. (Still at 350 degrees, about 35 minutes.)

 

When it came out, it looked like this:

 

Ha. If you compare those last two pictures, you can see EXACTLY where the crust floaters were. Definitely not blue-ribbon pretty.

 

Well, here's the bottom line:

 

1. Once you sift powdered sugar over the top of it (after they're cooled), it just looks normal.

2. These things are so stinkin' good, that even when it's wrong, it's fine.

3. Some portions of the bars really required a fork to eat it. (no crust!) But you had to look to see what had happened to them.

4. I didn't even get any "after" or "serving" photos, because we ate them, and took them to our softball tournament that weekend, where they were devoured.

 

And finally, if it had been an actual contest of my old recipe vs. the Contessa, the Contessa would have won, based on superb lemon flavor, and the fact that they were just thicker, yet still creamy-dreamy.

 

My hat's off to her. I am ditching my old standby, and going with her recipe. After all, she hasn't failed me with other recipes ..... like the most heavenly pecan bars EVER. (Which will have to be the subject of another post sometime.) This one now is another definite keeper!