Lemon Bars

 

Have you ever met someone who keeps all of their best recipes a secret?  It's completely bizarre to me.  These people must have fundamentally different reasons for cooking than I do.  I happened to share a recipe with one of these kinds of people some time ago that has become one of her favorites, and was thus able to guilt her into sharing one of her secret recipes in return.  I didn't even feel badly about it.  So now, I'm sharing it with the world, and they happen to be the very best lemon bars...ever.

Crust
8 oz. (2 sticks) butter, room temp
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 c. flour
1/8 tsp. salt

Filling
6 extra lg. room temp eggs
3 c. sugar
2 Tab. lemon zest
1 c. fresh lemon juice
1 c. flour
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350*.  For crust, in a food processor fitted with metal blade, process butter and sugar together.  Add flour and salt and pulse until it all comes together, but not so much that it forms a tight ball.  Press into a greased 9x13 pan coming up on the sides a little.  Bake until just beginning to brown, about 15 min.

I wiped out the food processor and used it for the filling as well, but you could also whisk together in a bowl.  Combine eggs, sugar, lemon zest and juice and whisk/process until smooth.  Whisk or pulse in flour one tablespoon at a time.  This seems to help avoid lumps of flour.

Pour onto hot baked crust.  Bake 30 minutes more or until it looks set (not too jiggly).  Cool completely to allow filling to set up.  Dust with powdered sugar.