Thursday, January 27, 2011

13) Lemon Bars (Dessert Diary, Part 1)


I) Here we chronicle my adventures in dessert making (the blueberry cobbler should be in this series…but I forgot to put it there…so we’ll just call that pre-dessert period). I have a lemon tree in my backyard. So I decided to try and make lemon bars. Here’s Thomas Keller’s version, it seems lighter and creamier than other versions. It’s also frozen, which is an interesting departure.

II) Lemon Bars

Materials:

Crust

· 10.5 tablespoons of butter

· ¼ plus 1 tablespoon sugar

· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

· 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

Filling

· 1 cup lemon juice

· 6 large eggs

· 6 egg yolks

· 1 ¼ cups sugar

· 9 tablespoons butter broken into pieces at room temperature

Method:

1) Cream sugar and butter. Combine vanilla and flour. The dough should be crumbly. Wrap in parchment paper and chill in fridge for at least half an hour or a day in advance.

2) Combine lemon juice, eggs, yolks, and sugar in a double boiler. Whisk until thickened (about 5 minutes). Take off heat and whisk in butter piece by piece.

3) Push crust into baking dish. And bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cool to room temperature.

4) Strain filling into crust and freeze for at least an hour. Slice and serve.

III) Results and Discussion

I haven’t eaten many lemon bars, but I found these ones enjoyable. They seem to be creamier and softer than most other ones I’ve had.

IV) Sources:

Keller, Thomas, Dave Cruz, Susie Heller, Michael Ruhlman, and Amy Vogler. Ad Hoc at Home. New York: Artisan, 2009. 304. Print.

V) Pictures!






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