What can cheer up anyone in depressing Winter with Summer flavors?
Lemon bars!
My little family has been begging me to bake some. Not chocolate. Not red velvet. Lemon.
Maybe we are all a little tired of gray days and cold feet? Maybe we are longing for a little more sunshine when we come home at night? Well, these can cure those Winter blues, even only for a little while.
These lemon bars cut down on some of the fat by replacing some of the butter with canola oil. It also cuts down on lemon work (I secretly hate juicing and zesting a lot of lemons). I used Trader Joe’s concentrate because all there really was in it was lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar. Pretty basic. You gotta love Trader Joe’s.
Lemonade Squares with Graham Cracker Crumble
Ingredients:
Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
4 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Filling
12 fl oz. frozen lemonade concentrate, defrosted
4 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
4 large eggs
2 large egg whites
Crumble
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 Tbsp. melted butter
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
powdered sugar for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 350˚. spray an 11 x 17 or 12 x 15 rectangular pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
In a food processor, make the crust. Mix the flour with sugar by pulsing a few times. Cut in the butter and pulse until mixture resembles course bread crumbs. Add the oil, vanilla and water and pulse a few more times. Mixture will begin to stick together but still will be crumbly. Pour into prepared pan, and press evenly into the bottom, using the palm of your hand or the back of a spatula. Bake crust until lightly golden, about 20-30 minutes. Let sit out to cool slightly as you prepare filling. Lower oven to 325˚.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and egg whites until combined and foamy. Add the lemonade concentrate, flour and zest. Whisk together and pour into the crust gently. Bake for about 10 minutes, the filling should be beginning to set. At this point, sprinkle the crumble top along the surface, and bake for another 5-10 minutes. The crumble should be lightly golden and the filling completely set. Let pan cool on a wire rack.
Once cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into squares.
For the crumble, just mix with a fork the crumble ingredients in a small bowl. It should feel like clumpy bread crumbs with large clumps that hold together and small crumbs. You may not need to use all of it.
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