I love lemon bars, but I rarely make them.  Baking lemon bars tends to fall into that baking category of slightly more time consuming and a little bit more work.  Squeezing lemons is also not the most enjoyable of baking tasks, but it is great for discovering small paper cuts and there is always that little squirt of juice that somehow makes it directly into your eye…  My favorite lemon bar recipe requires a cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice – that is a lot of lemon squeezing.  I am also not a fan of the sickly sweet lemon bar.  I am of the opinion that a good lemon bar should make your cheeks pucker.  The recipe below, with its full cup of lemon juice, will insure that.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Flour + 2 tbsp Flour
• 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
• pinch of Salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, cubed Butter
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 5 Eggs
• 2 cups Sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp Lemon Zest
• 1 cup fresh squeezed Lemon Juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a food processor.
3. Add the butter, and pulse until the dough begins to form.
4. Add in the vanilla.
5. Line a 9″x9″ pan with aluminum foil. Grease the Foil.
6. Press the dough into the bottom of the pan, and bake it for 28 minutes.
7. Remove the dough from the oven and allow it to cool slightly.
8. Reduce the oven temperature to 325.
9. Meanwhile, beat together the eggs and sugar.
10. Strain the lemon juice, and then whisk it into the eggs and sugar.
11. Whisk in 2 tbsp flour.
12. Stir in 2 1/2 tbsp lemon zest.
13. Pour the filling over the baked curst.
14. Bake for 22-25 minutes.
15. Chill the bars for at least 4 hours before removing them from the pan.