NiftyFifty

The normal process for posts here for me is make the recipe forget to photograph it or decide not to because it’s 10:30 at night when you decide to start making noise in the kitchen. Then, after finding out that the thing I just made is utterly delicious and I have to share it with you guys I make it again but this time over the weekend when I have enough daylight to take pictures. These lemon bars were a rare exception to the standard as I photographed the process and the final product and enjoyed them the first time making it.

Now let be honest with you for a second. This post was started 17 days ago (for those of you bad at math that would be July 2) and I’m just now continuing it. So the process for me posting entries here goes as follows as above but then there might be a little “road bump” in which I completely lose inspiration for the post because it may be a couple days after I made the delicious thing in the post. I just now got inspired (more like bored) to finish writing this for a couple reasons.

The first and probably the only because the rest I’m just going to make up is that I have about five or more recipes photographed that I want to post here but can’t because I want to finish this post (yay for run-on sentences). I sometimes randomly go through my iPhoto library for my camera and am completely dumbstruck at how many food pictures I have that I havent even uploaded to flickr.

The other reason being I really want Nifty Fifty to grow and actually be a food blog many (I’m aiming for more than 100, I know, tough goal) can come to for recipes that others have tried and enjoyed. I always have high hopes for things when I start them but those fall short of what comes out in the end, but I don’t want that to happen here.

Anyway back to the lemon bars. They’re delicious and refreshing. Slightly tart and just sweet enjoy to counter that. Make them the next time you buy a box of lemons like I did. 124 lemons were juiced in the process.

Lemon Bars from alpineberry
Yields: one 8-inch square pan

Crust:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/8 tsp salt
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Filling:
2 large eggs
1 cup superfine or bakers’ sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.

To make crust:
Combine flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and pulse until the mixture is pebbly. Press evenly into the bottom of your prepared pan. Bake until lightly golden, about 18-20 minutes. Set aside crust.

To make filling:
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and salt. Whisk in lemon zest and juice until well combined. Pour over crust (it’s okay if crust is still hot). Bake until filling is just set, about 15 to 18 minutes. Cool completely before serving. Dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired.