Sweet Tooth

Yesterday my sweet tooth was wanting attention. I didn't quite want cookies. Didn't have time to make a cake. Missed ingredients to make a pie.

But I looked through some cookbooks and found a recipe for lemon squares. It sounded perfect, and it more or less was.

It should be noted that I love lemon bars, but I don't like the ones that are more crust than lemon. This one was amazing. Somehow the crust ended up on top. I need to repeat it to get a better sense of how it works. That shouldn't be too hard, I just finished the last piece and already want more.

It should also be noted that this is from a cookbook put out by the library of a small, southern town. (Other treasures in it include grits casserole, liver nips, fried chitterlings, at least three fried chickens, General Lee Bread, biscuits, biscuits, and more biscuits, and--my favorite drink name--"hop, skip, and go naked.")

I didn't have lemons on hand, so just used juice from a bottle. Didn't have an 8 x 8 pan, so I just used a pie plate. (Decided there was enough butter in the crust that I didn't need to grease it.)

Here's the adapted recipe.

Lemon Shapes

6 Tbs butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup and 2 Tbs flour
2 eggs
2 generous Tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350.

Use electric mixer to beat butter for 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour. (Beat with mixer and then use fork to finish mixing.) Pat dough onto bottom of pie plate. Bake in oven for 15 minutes.

While baking, beat eggs. Add 3/4 cup sugar, 2 Tbs flour, lemon juice (original called for 2 Tbs, I like lemon, so I used ~2.5 Tbs), and baking powder. Beat for 3 minutes (yay electric mixer) or until slightly thickened. Pour over baked crust. Bake in oven (still at 350) for 25-30 minutes. Until the edges are a golden brown and the center is set.

The hard part is letting it cool. But really, it's too gooey right out of the oven to eat without a spoon.

Cut into whatever shapes you're going for and serve.