How to Make Perfect Lemon Bars

Most lemon square recipes require you to make a lemon curd that you have to cook before it even goes in the oven. I've cut that step out so that you can make these creamy, dreamy, tangy lemon bars that much quicker. Let me show you how. I'm using an 8 inch or 20 centimeter square pan for this recipe. I'm going to line it with a piece of aluminum foil. Try to get the foil as square as you can on the edges so that you don't have any rough spots on the edges of your bars. Now I'm going to line this with a bit of butter. Use your fingers to get the butter all the way into the corners and be sure to butter the edges of your tin too. I know it's a bit unusual but I use foil to line my tin for this recipe. It was a complete fluke and I tried it out one time when I ran out of parchment and it gave me the crispiest bottom on my lemon squares that I've never gone back to parchment for this recipe again. Set your tin to the side. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit or 160 degrees Celsius. If you have the option to turn the fan off on your oven for this recipe, that's ideal. If not, lower the temperature by a few degrees and just watch the cooking time. You might need to lower it slightly. Into a mixing bowl add 140 grams, that's 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of plain or all-purpose flour. Then sift in 30 grams, 1 quarter cup of powdered or icing sugar. I'm forever sifting my icing sugar because I live in a very humid area. Add in 1 gram, a quarter teaspoon of salt and half a gram, an eighth a teaspoon of baking powder. That helps the crust just crisp up a little bit. Let's give that a mix. Now add in 7 tablespoons, 100 grams of butter. You want your butter to be soft but still hold its shape. If you haven't had the chance to bring your butter up to a cool room temperature, you can grate it and work it into the pastry that way. Now cut together the butter and the flour. You could use a pastry cutter or two knives but I just like to use my hands. I like to coat all of the butter in a little bit of the flour mixture and then just start to work it through with my fingertips. Once you have this shaggy sandy consistency, add in your vanilla. I'm adding in 4 grams or 1 teaspoon. I find the vanilla in the crust adds a little bit of complexity to this recipe but you can absolutely leave it out or you can add in some of that grated lemon zest into the crust for a bit more lemony zing. Now tip your short crust into the pan. Gently pat your crust into the bottom of the tin. Once you have a fairly flat layer, you want to work a little bit of the crust up the sides to hold in the filling. It won't come all the way up the sides of the filling but it just prevents the filling from slipping underneath and giving you a soggy bottom. This is what your base should look like. Now we're going to pop it in the oven. You'll need to cook the crust for 20 minutes or until it's this beautiful golden brown colour. My trick for getting all of the condensed milk out of the can is to pop it into a mug and pour boiling water over the top. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and it pours out like a dream. Zest 2 of your lemons. You need 3 quarters of a cup or 177 grams of lemon juice and when your lemons are this size, they're quite small, I'll probably need about 4 of them but you want to make sure you're using fresh lemon juice for the best flavour in this recipe. I like to put the zest of one lemon into the filling and then the other one for sprinkling on top. Another hot tip for getting the most juice out of your lemons is pop them in the microwave. Mine are going in for about 30 seconds just to soften them up in the inside. Give your lemon a little roll on your board and that also helps to break down the cells inside the lemon. Cut your lemons in half and then juice them until you have 177 millilitres or three quarter cups. It's also important to note that if you want to use the zest, you'll want to do that before you cut and juice your lemons otherwise it will be impossible to get the zest off. When a recipe calls for a specific amount of lemons, I'm always a little bit dubious. Some lemons give off more juice than others so it's really important to measure your juice. Empty your tin of milk into your bowl. I like to do mine over the bowl because it tends to spill when you do it this way. Mine don't have those nice little tabs on the top to be able to open the tin but you can see how much looser that is from using that little trick with the hot water. Give that a good scrape and get all of the condensed milk into your bowl. If you have trouble finding sweetened condensed milk or it's really expensive where you live, I've popped my video recipe in the description below. Add the lemon juice to your sweetened condensed milk. I'm putting mine through a sieve because as you saw there are quite a few pips in there and give that a little whisk. Now add in four large egg yolks. The egg yolks add a creaminess to the filling but it also helps to give the yellow color that makes it look like lemon. If your egg yolks are not this dark, you could add in a pinch of turmeric and it won't change the flavor but you'll still get that bright yellow color. If you're unsure on how to separate eggs, I've popped my video on how to do it super easily in the description below. Now sprinkle in half of your zest. Again this is optional but it does add a bit more of a lemony zing. Once your crust is baked to a beautiful golden brown, pour your filling right over the top. Give that a little shake to release some of the air bubbles and pop it back into the oven. Mine had a few bubbles on top so I gave them a quick pop for a nice smooth finish. Now cook the filling for 25 to 30 minutes but check it at the 20 minute mark. Once you start to get bubbling around all of the edges and it's just starting to turn brown, that's when you're ready to pull it from the oven. It will still have a little bit of a wobble in the middle and that's okay. You want this to cool completely to room temperature. This will make sure your nice lemony custard is perfectly set. I like to cut these into nine big bars but you could cut them into 16 if you wanted a smaller portion. Just before you're ready to serve, give them a dusting with some icing sugar and then top with the remaining lemon zest. Look at that perfectly crispy base. After dusting with your powdered sugar, you could give them a little sprinkling of sea salt for a little extra kick. These will last in the refrigerator for three days but don't put the powdered sugar on top until you're ready to serve as it will just absorb into the custard. I wouldn't recommend freezing these because the custard will split and they just won't be the same. You could double this recipe and make it in a 9 by 13 inch dish. Who doesn't want more lemon squares? If you're a lemon lover like I am, you have to try my lemony pasta. It's the perfect summer dish. If you found this video helpful, please head down below, hit the like button or the hype button and leave me a comment. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time!