OK, so I like a really tart lemon square that's soft and gooey with more lemon than crust. And so here it is.
Gooey Lemon Squares
Ingredients
Crust
12 TBSP Unsalted butter, melted
55 grams sugar (2oz, ¼ cup)
1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
½ tsp Salt
255 grams AP flour (9 oz, 2 cups)
Topping
670 grams sugar(1lb 7 5/8oz, 3 cups plus 6 TBSP)
80 grams AP flour (2 7/8oz, 9 TBSP)
9 large eggs
1 ½ TBSP lemon zest
1 ¼ cup strained fresh lemon juice
Powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
Heat oven to 350
Line a metal 9x13 pan with foil
Crust
Stir melted butter with sugar, vanilla, and salt. Mix in flour. Press into pan and smooth surface. Prick with a fork. Bake 20 – 255 minutes, until cookie is brown.
Topping
While crust is baking whisk flour and sugar together in a large bowl. Whisk in eggs until mixture is smooth. Add lemon juice and zest, stir until smooth (will be very thin).
Reduce oven to 300
Pour filling into HOT crust and bake 25 minutes, until the middle jiggles slightly when you shake the pan. Cool completely. Cut into 1 ½ inch squares, then dust tops with powdered sugar.
Yield: 40 1 ½ inch squares, plus edges for nibbling.
Notes:
You could, of course, make 48 1x2 inch pieces, but they wouldn’t be lemon SQUARES, now would they?
The reasoning behind cutting before dusting is that cutting messes up the top, and the dusting hides it. So measure and mark, cut without separating, dust, then use a fork to lift pieces carefully to their final home.
I don’t recommend doubling this recipe unless you are doing it in two pans. A half sheet won’t cook evenly, and it’s really deep enough.
