Before we get too far into it, I'll write out the recipe. I got it from Pinterest and followed it but not exactly, and therefore any complaints I have will be with myself, and not with the author of the recipe. Mine turned out good, I'd give it a 8/10 but they could have and should have been better. I'll need to figure out what I did.
RECIPE:
Crust: Shortbread (and this is for a 9" x 13" pan.)
2 cups of flour, 1 cup of room temperature butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.
After blending the butter and sugar, you add the dry, and use a spatula to mix. It will be crumbly. You pour it into a pan that you have pre-sprayed, and you pat it down tightly. You take a fork and pierce the top several times and bake it for 15-20 minutes until it is a very light golden brown color.
For the lemon filling: 6 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, 2/3 cup of lemon juice and 2 tsp. of lemon zest. I used a juicer to strain the lemons and collected the zest easily from the discard.
Mix the eggs, sugar, zest, lemon juice, and flour together, blend and pour over the cookie crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Set out to cool for a hour before putting it into the fridge for 2 hours to cool.
OK, that's the recipe. Here's the thing I ran into while making the bars and afterward. I should have noticed that the recipe called for a 9" x 13" pan, and I used the full recipe for a smaller pan. I used a 9" x 9" glass pan. It's not that big of a difference, but the crust would have been a little less thick if I had paid attention like I should have.
The shortbread still tasted really good, but if I was making cookie bars it would have crumbled on me, so I'll need to figure out a way to overcome that. I want to be able to just make the cookies next time without the lemon top. It was super simple and anyone can do it.
I don't use sugar when I cook so I will state that I used monk fruit. You can use a blender or food processor to make the monk fruit into powdered monk fruit so that it has the fluffy consistency as powdered sugar. I just don't want all the calories. The same bar that would have over 350 calories has less than 40 when I make it. Like I said, I give it an 8 out of 10. I could improve it.
When you juice the lemons there is air in the mix and you don't get that clear transparent yellow look like you see in the professional photos. I think they use (probably use) lemon juice rather than juiced lemons. There is a difference. I juiced mine and took the zest right from the juicer's discard bin. It was extremely fine, but could have added to the cloudy coloring.
I popped mine in the oven (first the crust at 375 for 15 minutes) at 375 for 20 minutes, and I pulled it out to cool. I set it on a rack and decided after about an hour to dig into it. You're supposed to let it cool several hours - - sue me.
It's thick, it's good, it's lemony. I like it. I just think I can improve on it. I'll keep thinking of ways to make that happen. With time and effort this too will be a family favorite, even if I'm only sharing the first few batches with the kid that lives with me. I'm sure my grands would eat two of them without complaining. I'd bet the farm on that.
It's been at least 30 years since I've made shortbread I think, so I was hoping this batch would be really good. It's good. It's not spectacular. I want to figure out what I need to do to make it really stand out. I hate to have to sacrifice this way, but yeah, I guess I'll just have to keep making it over and over again until I can say I've perfected it. Daunting, I know.
Well, here's to cooking with recipes. I've never been a fan of that. I want to just put things together. After a few times I'll ditch the piece of paper that tells me exactly what to do, and I'll venture out on my very own - - which typically goes my way, but there have been times when I end up scrapping it all and just washing up the mess.
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