March on sunny soldier
though the leaf laden cool breath
of darker days is nipping
at your heels
and the night is gaining
traction in the never
ending tug
of war game it plays with day.
March on sunny soldier
and sell your wares
when fickle hearts
forget the long hot performances
under sun soaked skies
and find new love affairs
in dancing leaves
and dressed up trees.
I will still dream
of lemons
and stolen afternoons
too hot to do much more
than kiss you
brightly, slowly, sweetly
with reckless abandon
as if Fall would never come.
Lemon Bars
Lovely bites of lemony goodness and a lucsious shortbread cookie base. Delightful and Sunny! I often use my basic lemon curd recipe (which I usually have on hand becasue my family loves it so much), but adding a bit of flour to the recipe helps the lemon bars be a bit more dense.
Ingredients
Lemon Curd
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 150 grams sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 120 ml fresh sqeezed lemon juice
- 2 tbsp cream
- 115 grams unsalted butter 1 stick cut into cubes
- 4 tbsp flour
shortbread Crust
- 230 grams unsalted butter 2 sticks, melted
- 100 grams granulated sugar 1/2 cups
- 2 tsp almond or vanilla extract (I love almond extract but vanilla will do)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 250 grams flour 2 cups
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 and prepare a 9×13 pan by lining with parchment paper.
- Make your Shortbread Crust
- This crust is so easy. Just mix the butter, sugar extract and salt in a bowl until well combined. Blend in the flour until the dough comes together into a thick mass. Press it into your pan until it is evenly spread. Prebake your crust until the edges are light brown and the middle is slightly puffed up, about 20-25 minutes. Take it out of the oven and poke it all over with a fork. Let cool.
Make your Lemon Curd
- In a medium metal bowl place eggs, egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and cream and whisk to combine well.
- Cut up your butter into cubes, place in a bowl and add the flour. Mix it with your hands so that the butter is coated with the flour. Set aside.
- Place bowl with egg mixture over a saucpan with boiling water (creating a bain-marie). Cook over medium heat whisking CONSTANTLY. Keep whisking until the mixture become thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon nicely. A thermometer should register at least 175F/75C but if you dont have one handy don't let it stop you. Your mixture should thicken nicely letting you know it's done. It will thicken more as it cools.
- Remove from heat and pour mixture through a fine sieve into a medium bowl. (You want to strain out the lemon zest so your curd is nice and smooth). Slowly add your butter/flour mixture wisking constantly until all the butter is nicely encorporated. Allow your curd to come to room temperature before using in a tart. Or if you made extra, place into mason jars or other container and place in fridge. Will keep in the fridge for about a week (I dont know, it has never lasted more than a few days in our house) or a month in the freezer.
Assemble your lemon bars
- Pour cooled lemon curd into the pan on top of your crust
- Bake again for about 25 minutes, or until the center is set and no longer jiggly.
- Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting into squares.
- Keep in the refridgerator for up to a week (but they wont last that long anyway!)
