Lovely Lemon Bar Cookies

Something you should know about me: I'm a chocoholic.

From the huge CHOCOLATE in the category cloud over to the right, it's kind of obvious.

But there is one thing that I love even more than all the chocolate in the world - which is really hard for me to say, I took like 20 minutes prepping for this post - and that's lemon bars.

These lemon bars, specifically.

Best.  Ever.  Period.

The crust is buttery and thick, and the lemon filling isn't too tart or too sweet or too crusty or too dry - it's moist and delicious and although it could be a little thicker to balance out the awesome crust, I think it's just fine.

I swear, if I hadn't been giving these away, I would have eaten the whole pan by myself.

This is a Joanne Fluke recipe, from her very first book, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, like those Black and Whites and the Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies.

And it's soooo awesome.

Lovely Lemon Bar Cookies

2 cups flour

2 sticks cold butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons flour

additional powdered sugar to sprinkle

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 9x13 pan.
2. Combine flour and powdered sugar in large bowl.
3. Cut sticks of butter into small pieces and cut into the flour-sugar mixture with a pastry blender/in a food processor until it looks like coarse meal.
4. Spread in prepared pan and press in with hands.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden around edges.  Remove from oven, but don't turn oven off.
6. Whisk eggs with fork, and then combine with sugar.  Add lemon juice and zest and mix.  Mix in baking powder and salt.  Add flour and mix thoroughly.
7. Pour lemon mixture over crust.  Return to oven and bake additional 30-35 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and sprinkle additional powdered sugar.  Let cool and cut into bars.  Makes anywhere from 12-36 bars, depending on desired bar size.

Let's break it down now:

Combine flour and powdered sugar...

Add butter, which you want as cold as possible...

Cut it in...

Spread it out and press it down...

And bake for 15 minutes.

Beat eggs...

Add sugar...

Mix, then combine with lemon juice and zest.  Add baking powder and salt...

...and combine.

Add flour...

...and mix thoroughly.

Pour over baked crust...

...and bake for 30 minutes.  Then sprinkle on that powdered sugar, let it cool, slice it up, and EAT.

Yeah, I cut mine into 12 bars.  No, I don't want to know what the calorie count was.  No, I didn't want to share.  But I did.  Which makes me a good person.  Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed these.

Hope you enjoy them too!
-JJ