Lemon Bars

I went to one of my local thrift stores this month and everything in the entire store was 50% off.  I immediately went to the cookbooks. I picked up two old Cook's Illustrated magazines for $.12 each.  What a deal!

 One of the recipes in one of the magazines particularly caught my eye.  It was called "The Best Lemon Bars."  Lemon bars have long been one of my favorite desserts.  The buttery crust, the tart filling...it all goes so well together in this popular dessert.  I had to try this recipe and see if it really was "the Best."



 Luckily, I had to bring a dessert to a Christmas party.  It was the perfect excuse to make these bars and see how popular they would be.  The recipe differed from my usual Lemon bars in that there is cornstarch in the crust and whole milk in the filling.  The filling was really creamy and lemony.

 The crust was a perfect shortbread; thick and buttery.  I believe this is indeed the best Lemon bar recipe I have tried.  It is worth giving it a shot to see if it stands up to your own favorite recipe for these bars.

The Best Lemon Bars: (slightly adapted from Cook's Illustrated):

crust

1 3/4 cups AP flour

2/3 cups sifted powdered sugar (mine clumps so I always have to sift it...don't if yours isn't clumpy)

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks butter

filling

4 large eggs

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 Tbsp flour

zest from 2 lemons

juice from 4 lemons

1/3 cup half and half

1/4 tsp salt

For the crust: Line a 9X13 pan with parchment or foil up all four sides.  Pulse flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt in food processor.  Add butter and pulse until mix like coarse meal.  Press into the bottom of the lined pan and refrigerate 30 minutes.  Afterward, bake 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

For the filling: Whisk eggs, sugar and flour in a medium bowl, then stir in zest, juice, milk and salt.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.  Stir filling mixture to reblend and then pour onto warm crust.  Bake until filling feels firm when touched lightly; about 20 minutes.  Cool in pan 30 minutes.  Remove bars from pan by lifting foil or parchment.  Peel back foil and cut into serving sized bars.  Dust with powdered sugar.