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Lemon bars

Our ramakins hold about 3/4 cup each, so this recipe makes 4 ramakins of "lemon bar" (really, a pie).

Crust

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 8 tsp confectioner's sugar
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  1. place rack in middle of oven. preheat to 350F. melt butter.
  2. prepare the ramakins by greasing the bottom and sides with butter or oil.
  3. stir the flour, sugar, and salt together. mix in the butter and vanilla until you get a slightly crumbly cookie dough.
  4. moisten fingers with water and press the dough into the bottom of the baking dish to make the crust. use a fork to poke holes.
  5. bake in center rack, 350F for 22 minutes.

Filling

  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks (save whites for meringue topping)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 8 tsp (2 tbsp + 2tsp) flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1+ cup lemon juice
  • zest from 2 lemons
  1. boil/reduce the lemon juice to about 2/3 cup
  2. beat eggs and yolks together in a bowl. stir in flour, baking powder, and sugar. whisk in lemon juice and zest for about 2 minutes.
  3. pour mixture over crust. bake in center rack again, for 25 minutes. (17 + 8 with the meringue below)

Meringue

  • 2 large egg whites (leftover from filling)
  • 4 tsp sugar
  1. whisk egg white until it forms ribbons, then whisk in sugar. beat for several minutes, until "it can hold peaks".
  2. when the filling has about 8 minutes to go, spoon the meringue on top and spread it out lightly. let the whole thing cook for the remaining 8 minutes.

(from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/232799/chef-johns-lemon-bars/)


Notes

  • I doubled the salt and vanilla from the original recipe. I also doubled the entire filling, except for the sugar.
  • The original recipe made the crust way too dry to be a good dough, and relied on adding water. I added butter to make the ratio 3/2/1, more typical of a shortbread.
  • They wanted the dough mixed cold, but liquid butter is way easier to deal with.
  • The meringue won't brown at only 5 minutes, but at 10 minutes, the filling hasn't really set yet. Needs more tweaking? ... 8 minutes works well.
  • They're very flat.
  • There's a ton of crust now. Maybe try 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar. Also the filling forgot to double the flour: should be 4 tbsp.
  • The crust is very sweet so I've been trying to make the middle more lemony. Reducing the lemon juice seems to help.
Notes 2018

- use zester on lemon zest
- lemon juice reduction takes a long time, cool it down before mixing
- reduce flour a bit

Notes 2019

- makes 6 cups? 1.5L?
- 1/2 cup zest (4 lemons)
- 1.5 cups lemon juice (6 lemons)
- too much merengue for the top
- too much crust, crust didn't reallllly cook enough
- custard didn't set in 25min, needed like 10 more (!!) minutes

Double recipe for pan (pictured)

1.
  - 1 cup flour
  - 2/3 cup melted butter
  - 1/3 confectioner sugar
  - 1/2 tsp vanilla
  - 1/2 tsp salt

2.
  - 8 large eggs
  - 4 large egg yolks
  - 1/2 cup sugar
  - 1/3 cup flour
  - 1 tsp baking powder
  - 2 cups lemonjuice reduced to 1 1/3 cups
  - zest from 4 lemons

3.
  - 4 large egg whites
  - 8 tsp sugar

- actual
    - not quite 2 cups of lemon juice; 5 lemon zests in little shreds from the zester
- should add more sugar to the filling next time

 

 

     
 



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