Lemon bars seem to be a dessert that everyone finds exciting and fancy. They have a crisp shortbread crust with a lemon curd layer that has just enough sugar to counter the lemons’ acidity. I’ve always enjoyed lemon bars, whether my sister and I made them for our family or they were made by someone else.
There’s one main reason that I don’t make them that often, which is that they have always been a little bit complicated to make. When I make lemon bars, I have to double-boil the filling on the stove and get my hands covered in butter, but Genevieve Ko’s lemon bar recipe from New York Times Cooking requires neither of these steps, and the resulting dessert doesn’t even sacrifice flavor for the relative ease of the process.
When I started making these bars, I was a little bit skeptical—both parts of this recipe were even more different than what I’d thought. The crust was made with melted butter, which was unusual. Normally, for shortbread, I use cold grated butter, not melted. I was worried this would make the crust too tough and not crumbly, but it was, surprisingly, perfect!
Another part I was worried about was the top. It used a lot of eggs, so I was worried the flavor would be overpowering. I was surprised though, as when you take a bite of the whole bar, you can’t taste the eggs at all! I’m glad I wasn’t too put off by the large number of eggs, as it really wasn’t a problem.
When I took the finished dessert out of the oven, it didn’t look set enough, so I ended up putting it in for another seven minutes or so. This was a good decision because, otherwise, the curd would have been too runny, which would make it just fall off the crust, but seven minutes extra (twenty-seven total) was much better.
The one thing I’d change for the next time I make it is the amount of lemon juice in the curd. I made it with 2/3 of a cup, which was the amount written in the recipe, but it was a little too much. I love sour foods more than most people, but this was more than my liking. Next time I’d probably put 1/2 of a cup or a little less. The crust also tastes very good, with vanilla and lemon zest, so putting less lemon in the curd would allow you to taste more of the crust.
Overall, I really loved this recipe for lemon bars. It was so delicious and much easier to make than other recipes. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to make a dessert with which they want to impress the people they’re serving, as it tastes a lot more complicated than it really is!
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