KiSS Cooking Club: Lemon Bars

Celebrate summer by making lemon bars!

Summer is here! So, are you ready for a dessert that is pure sunshine on your plate? These lemon bars are the perfect lemony treat to serve at your backyard barbecue, and if you LOVE something tart, then these are going to blow your mind with a little trick Ian learned from America’s Test Kitchen.

Spoiler: It’s Cream of Tartar! That weird little spice box in your mom’s pantry that you never knew what it was used for. Well, it’s a dry acid, and it’s the trick to making this lemony dessert even lemonier.

Lemon Bar Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• ¼ sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 8 tbsp melted unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt.
3. Add melted butter, and mix together until a cookie-like dough forms (the butter should mix well with the dry ingredients and the dough will be easy to work with)
4. Take an 8’’ x 8’’ baking pan, and line it with tin foil or parchment paper (Don’t skip this part, it will make it MUCH easier to remove the squares after baking.)
5. Press the dough into the bottom of the pan, and even out using your fingers
6. Place the pan on the middle rack, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until dark golden brown.

Lemon Bar Filling

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• ¼ salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together cream of tartar, sugar, and salt.
2. Add the eggs and egg yolks and whisk until smooth
3. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, and whisk together some more (Ian mixed up these steps in the video and added the lemon first, so if you make that mistake too it’s not a big deal. We’re not perfect okay!?)
4. In a medium saucepan, cook the filling mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly (to prevent the eggs from curdling), until it reaches 160 degrees or about 5-8 minutes.
5. Once the mixture reaches 160 degrees, remove from the heat (it should still be liquid), and stir in the 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
6. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a large bowl, and strain the mixture to remove lemon zest and any curds that may have formed (use a spatula to press the filling through the strainer).
7. Pour the filling into the baking pan over the crust, and shake until it’s level and smooth.
8. Place the pan back into the 350-degree oven for 8-12 minutes, until the filling has set.
9. Remove from the oven, and let the pan cool for about 30 minutes to an hour before removing the foil sling from the pan.
10. Cut into bars, and enjoy! (Feel free to sprinkle some icing sugar on top for an extra sugar high)