For the Love of Lemon

I don't think I could say this enough. I love luv lurve lemon! Making good on my goals to a) use my Martha Stewart Cookies book and b) start picking away at my list of 50 recipes I want to try (see the right column down the side of my blog for the complete list).

So technically, these are bars in the cook book, but I decided to make it in my flan pan with the removable bottom to make it prettier. Did I mention I love lemon? This recipe was extremely simple and again, like so many of Martha's recipes, I already had everything in my kitchen.

Here's the recipe as it is printed, I did everything the same, but of course, used a different pan.

Lemon Squares

From Martha Stewart Cookies/Martha Stewart Online

For the Crust:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, frozen, plus more for dish

1 3/4 cups AP flour

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

3/4 tsp. coarse salt

For the Filling:

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

3 tbsp. AP flour

1/4 tsp. coarse salt

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup whole milk

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish, and line with parchment paper.

Make crust: Grate butter on a cheese grater with large holes; set aside. Whisk together flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter, and stir with a wooden spoon until combined and mixture looks crumbly.

Transfer mixture to prepared dish; press evenly onto bottom with your hands.

You can see the butter speckled throughout, mixture begins quite dry and

comes together during baking.

Freeze crust 15 minutes. Bake until lightly golden, 16 to 18 minutes. Leave oven on.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk together eggs, granulated sugar, flour, and salt in a bowl until smooth.

Can you tell the difference? See *note below.

Stir in lemon juice and milk. Pour over hot crust.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees, and bake until filling is set and edges are slightly golden brown, about 18 minutes. Let cool slightly on a wire rack. Lift out; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into 2-inch squares. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Lemon squares can be refrigerated in airtight containers up to 2 days.

Makes about 2 dozen (or one tart!).

* Note: The store was out of organic free range eggs and I had to buy free run instead. Three of these eggs are organic free range and one is free run. The only way to be sure that the birds are being ethically treated and living a normal life of exercise and socializing, free of hormones, which are harmful not only to the animal, but to us as consumers as well, is if the eggs are certified organic free range.