Saturday, April 3, 2010

Paula Dean Lemon Squares

These are SOOO good and it's no wonder because the recipe calls for a ton of butter! I swear I ate at least 6 of them when I made them this past week, and I'm talking about 6 in a row. This isn't including what I had eaten the night before or later that day.

I had tried a lemon bar recipe that was given to me by a friend and it never quite set up right and I thought that maybe it was me...it wasn't. Or at least even after a couple of shots at it, it still wouldn't set up right. It ended up being really gooey, which is ok, if you like it like that. I've been looking for a recipe that was more...let's say, lemon bar-ish. I found this recipe from Paula Dean on the foodnetwork website and I just love it.
So here it is:

For the crust: mix 2 cups AP flour
1c. pwd. sugar
pinch of salt (really, could you be a little more specific??)
2 sticks butter @ room temp.

I treat most crusts the same in that I mix the dry ingredients first and then incorporate the butter. I also cube it into pieces so that I have to work the mix less making the crust flakier (hopefully).

Filling:
In a mixer- 4 eggs
2c. granulated sugar
6T. AP flour
6T. Lemon juice

* Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan and press in dough ( or mix, it really doesn't end up looking like dough at all, It's kind of a dry mixture. It should cling together nicely, just press what flour may still seem loose into the moist parts).
**Bake the crust for 20 minutes. Pour filling into the pan (give it a swirl or two in the bowl first) and bake another 25 minutes. Let them cool, then cut and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Sorry, no picture. I made them for Charlie's office the other day and ate the ones left behind too quickly!