I feel safer when I refrigerate the bars before removing them from the pan. I then remove them and cut my bars and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2/3 confectioners sugar
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, at a cool room temp, cut into 1 inch pieces
Lemon Curd
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsps lemon zest
- 3 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup lemon juice ( from 3-4 lg lemons) strained
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
Instructions
For the crust
- Line a 9 X 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper, extending the paper up and over all sides. This helps when removing the bars from the pan. Dot the pan first with butter to keep paper in place.
- Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in food processor, using the steel blade. Add butter and blend about 10 seconds then pulse about 3 times until mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle the mixture in the prepared pan and press firmly with your fingers making an even layer in the bottom of the pans that goes up the sides about 1/2 inch.
- Chill crust for 30 minutes. Meanwhile heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake crust 20-25 minutes until light golden brown.
For the filling
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and zest, then whisk in the flour and salt. Stir in the lemon juice, milk and butter, blend well.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F when you remove baked crust from oven. Stir the filling one more time and pour onto the hot crust. Bake until the filling feels firm when touched lightly, about 20 minutes. Do not overbake.
- Transfer pan to a cooling rack and cool until almost at room temperature, about 30 minutes. Pull the long sides of the parchment paper to remove the entire bar from the pan onto a cutting board. Cut bars as desired.
