Becky's Famous Lemon Bars

Apparently I'm known throughout the land (or at least the NYC theater community that I've worked with) for my lemon bars. It's a little embarrassing, in fact. I have stories. And am sometimes sold-out by colleagues and friends, and then I have to arrive with lemon bars in hand.

But seriously, what's not to love about an amazing lemon bar? A nice, crunchy shortbread crust. A tangy, yet sweet, creamy lemony middle...I want a lemon bar and cup of tea just thinking about it!

Okay, so you want the secret to my success? Well...maybe I won't give you that. But I will show you the recipe I use!

Lemon Bars
adapted from Paul Deen's recipe
Prep time: about 15 minutes
Cook time: 40-50 minutes
Total time: about 1 hour (plus cooling time)
Yields: 24 large or 48 small bars

Ingredients

CRUST:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt

LEMONY GOODNESS (ie...FILLING)

• 6 eggs
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 3 TBS grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Additional powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 pan with vegetable oil cooking spray.
2. Make the crust: Combine the butter, flour, powdered sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix with spoon or fingers until well combined. Shape into a ball and pat evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crust is set and just beginning to brown.
3. Make the filling: While the crust is baking, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat together the eggs, granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour.
   
4. Pour over the baked crust and bake for another 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown and crusty on top.
5. Let cool completely, then sift powdered sugar over the top.
6. Cut, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving.

**NOTE** It's important to make sure to let this fully set before taking them out of the pan and serving, otherwise they will be runny.

Enjoy!!!

Lemon-Poppyseed Muffins

I gotta say...I'm not really a huge muffin fan. But, people really enjoy when you bring a batch of fresh muffins to work. So, sometimes I make muffins. I'm not anti-muffin or anything.

For some reason I've always been drawn to lemon-poppyseed muffins. Something about citrus just does it for me. These muffins don't have a lot of lemony tang in the muffin bit, but have a lovely lemony glaze that really just makes the flavor pop. There are a lot of variations on this basic muffin recipe - today I'll just do the lemon-poppyseed but as I work my way through making the other muffins I will be sure to post.

Lemon-Poppyseed Muffins
courtesy of the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Yields: 12 large muffins, or about 22 medium muffins
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 + 1/4 cups sugar (divided)
  
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 TBS poppyseeds
• 1 TBS grated lemon zest
  
• 1 1/2 cups lowfat plain yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• 8 TBS (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Generously coat muffin tin(s) with vegetable oil spray, or line with baking cups.
2. Mix the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppyseeds together in a large bowl. Whisk the yogurt, eggs and lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Gently fold the yogurt-egg mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula unil just combined. Fold in the melted butter.
3. Use a large ice-cream scoop or measuring cup to divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes.
4. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving
   
5. While baking - heat 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture forms a light syrup, 3 to 4 minutes. Brush the warm syrup over the warm baked muffins and serve.

Enjoy with a nice cup of coffee or afternoon tea!