The brightest and most lemony Lemon Bars I know - a shortbread crust topped with a sweet-tart thick layer of goo. Deliciously tart and not toothachingly sweet.
Line a metal 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper, covering the bottom and sides, or grease your pan very well.
Cream butter and ½ cup sugar until light and fluffy with a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer. Add 2 cups flour and salt and mix at low speed until just combined.
Scrape dough into the prepared pan. Press it along the bottom and up the sides of the pan to form a ½-inch edge. Chill for 15 minutes while you heat the oven to 350F.
Bake chilled crust at 350F for 15-20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Set aside to cool for a few minutes, but no need to cool completely.
While your crust is baking, prepare the filling. Zest your lemons into your mixing bowl, if you haven't already.
Cut your zested lemons in half and juice them, preferably with an electric juicer.
Use a wire whisk to mix together the lemon zest, lemon juice, eggs, 2 ½ cups sugar, and 1 cup flour. Pour into the still-warm crust.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until filling is set. It will look not as shiny. Filling will not jiggle when done. Do not overbake.
Cool at room temperature. Dust with powdered sugar, and cut into small bars.
Store leftovers in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Use a shiny metal pan for best results. If you have a dark metal pan, use parchment and check for doneness a few minutes early; the edges may overcook. If you have glass, use parchment; these have burned along the edges when I've made them in a glass pan.
Definitely chill the crust before baking it. Not chilling the crust will cause the ½ inch edge to sink in. The filling will burn if it touches the pan. It will also be rubbery if it bakes as a thin layer over the sunken edge crust.
Lemon sizes vary. Have a couple of extra on hand. I needed all 6 lemons the last time I made these.
You need a lot of lemon juice, so use an electric juicer. A handheld model will work too; it just takes longer. If you don't have a juicer, you can peel the lemons (after you zest them) and blend them, pith and all, then strain them through a sieve.
Only use fresh lemon juice, as bottled juice has an off-taste. That said, if you can't get quite enough juice out of your lemons, supplementing with a small amount of bottled juice will be fine.
If you use extra-large eggs like Ina Garten, use 6. If you have smaller eggs, you will need more. Aim for 350 grams of eggs in your filling.
adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Calorie counts are an estimate only.