Meyer Lemon Bars

This year I was asked to bring dessert for the annual Easter feast. It took me days to decide what to make. I wanted something fun and spring-like. There would be kids there, so I didn't want anything too foofy or complicated. I mulled over the possibilities. Carrot cake? Strawberry shortcake? Rhubarb pie? Coconut Lime cupcakes? Oh, the dilemma. I debated so long that the day before Easter I still hadn't decided what to make. Fortunately while meandering through the produce aisle at the Co-op, inspiration suddenly struck in the form of a large pile of the most gorgeous Meyer lemons I'd ever seen. They were practically glowing as they called out to me, and there was no way I could pass them by. Lemon bars it would be.

I love lemon bars, and I can't imagine anyone who doesn't. They're fun, decadent and so pretty. Just like me, Heraldo.



The Ingredients:

Crust:

2 sticks of butter at room temperature
1/2 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
1/8 tsp. of salt

Filling:

7 large eggs at room temperature
2 1/2 cups of sugar (Meyer lemons are sweet. If these were regular lemons, I'd use 3 cups)
1 cup of freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
the zest of about 2 lemons
1 cup of flour

Powdered sugar to dust on top.

Aren't these beautiful? A cross between a lemon and a sweet orange, Meyer lemons are less acidic, more fragrant and sweeter than a regular lemon. I could go on and on about them. How they make an amazing limoncello. How great they are preserved and used in a Moroccan lamb tagine. How they make the most delicious lemonade ever, but I won't today. Today it's all about the bar. Alright. Stop staring at my lemons and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.



To make the crust, cream the butter and sugar in a mixer until it's light and fluffy.



Mix the flour and the salt together and, with the mixer on low speed, add them gradually to the creamed butter and sugar until just barely mixed.



Dump the dough into a prepared 9" x 13" pan and press it with your hands to cover the pan evenly. Build a little edge around the sides.



Bake the crust for about 20 minutes.

While it's baking you can make the filling. First squeeze the lemons. Supposedly if you roll a lemon around with your palm on the counter for awhile, more juice will come out. I don't know if this is true or not, and I'm always too impatient to try it. I use one of these handy metal fruit squeezer things over a strainer. You can also just use your hands. If you do, be sure to squint up your eyes and make Incredible Hulk sound effects while you're squeezing. These lemons were so juicy it only took three to get a cup of juice.



Then grate some zest from 2 lemons - more if you like a zestier taste - and add it to the juice.



Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest. Add the flour and continue mixing until it's well-combined. Check your crust. If it's a nice light brown color, take it out and set it on a wire rack.



Pour the filling over the crust and stick it back in the oven.



Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the filling is set and no longer jiggly. Let it cool on a wire rack.



Now see in the upper left hand corner of the above picture where I almost dropped the entire pan of lemon bars and stuck my thumb in while trying to catch it? If you happen to do something similar, don't you worry one little bit. Your bars will be just fine because you'll be covering them with a lovely coating of powdered sugar. And powdered sugar, much like the heavy makeup on an unshaven drag queen, will hide a variety of sins.



After the bars cool to room temperature, sprinkle on the powdered sugar and cut them into squares. Arrange them on a fancy plate and throw on some extra lemon slices to make the whole thing look pretty and to hopefully distract your family from the fact that you procrastinated so long that you made the lemon bars on the same day as the dinner and were in such a hurry that you took them out of the oven too soon and the filling didn't set up all the way and so they'll probably have to eat them with a spoon.



And by the way, they still taste divine with a spoon. Or smeared on an inner thigh.

Enjoy!

Grammy's Fresh Apple Cake

It's that time of year again...the sunlight is slanting and there's a chill in the air....autumn has definitely arrived. And so have the bald-faced hornets. Those little bastards, along with their cohorts the yellowjackets, are everywhere.

I remember going to our friend Jay's cabin on South Fork Mountain every autumn so that my dad and brother could hunt for deer. Jay used to sit on his front porch eating his breakfast of bacon and eggs every morning while the yellow jackets swarmed all around him. He barely looked at them as he continuously lifted his fork to his mouth. Until, that is, one unlucky creature would land on his plate. With the tiniest hint of a gleam in his eye, Jay would make one quick sweep with his arm and stab the yellowjacket right in its nasty little heart. And without a hint of unease, he would then wipe his fork off on his napkin and continue to eat breakfast. I never saw him miss.

I, unfortunately, never acquired Jay's talent for annihilating, nor his laissez-faire attitude about, wasps. So it was with trepidation that I journeyed out to the apple tree this afternoon to pick enough beautiful sweet red apples for the food that smells and tastes like autumn itself: Grammy's fresh apple cake.

My gram, in her little house on Monument Road, has made this cake for years, and like all the best recipes in this world, it's very simple. Therefore, hypothetically speaking, of course, if you are suffering from exhaustion due to the Great Autumnal Raging Hormone Surge of 2007, and you just happen to make a few mistakes here and there, like maybe....you don't beat the sugar with the butter, you add it to the dry ingredients....and you forget to sift the dry ingredients...and you underestimate how many apples you picked so you add two more cups than the recipe calls for...and you try to put the sugar back up in the cupboard and in doing so knock an entire box of open baking soda into the cake batter sitting by the stove so you have to dig it all out with your hands and then vacuum the stovetop while using language Grammy definitely wouldn't approve of.....well, you have nothing to worry about. Everything will be just fine, especially if you serve it warm with a big scoop of Humboldt Creamery vanilla.


Grammy Edith's Fresh Apple Cake

1 C. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups chopped apples
1 cup nuts and/or raisins rolled in flour (optional, of course)

Sift dry ingredients and set aside. Beat together the butter and sugar. Add egg and beat. Add dry ingredients. Stir in apples and anything else you desire (the batter will be thick like cookie dough.) Pour into a greased 8" x 8" pan and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.