Lemon Bars

Craig teaches a class most Sunday afternoons of 2 to 6 young men aged 16 to 18.  The idea behind this class is to help prepare or at least present the idea to them to serve a mission for our church when they turn 19.  I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a mission is something that is desired and expected of young men. 

One thing that he hopes to do each Sunday besides share thoughts is give them a treat, sometimes it is something they can fix themselves (such as graham cracker, chocolate frosting, and peanut butter cookies) and other times it is something we prepare ahead of time.  Today's was the later.

On the way home from church we realized we had not bought any items in preparation for the goodie and wondered what to do.  Craig suggested lemon bars and commented that he loves my lemon bars.  He asked what he should do to help and I gave him the assignment of picking the lemons and squeezing the juice for the bars.

So here is the recipe, it is taking from Betty Crocker's Cookie Book (I have had this book forever and have about 5 favorites in it and this is one of them)

Lemon Bars

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter - melted
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 TBS lemon juice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix flour, butter and powdered sugar. Press into ungreased baking pan 8x8x2 inches.  I have a glass pan and I don't know if that makes a difference in it at all or not.  Build up the sides as best you can.  Bake for 20 minutes.

The crust (don't hesitate to eat the crumbs from this left in the pan after serving the bars, it is pretty yummy by itself)

Beat remaining ingredients until light and fluffy about 3 minutes.



I had to mix the eggs with my magic bullet because my hand mixer is dead, so it only took about 1 minute.

Pour over baked layer.

Bake until no indentation remains when touched in center, about 25 minutes.  I have never baked this less or longer, it seems to be just right for my oven.

It gets a beautiful crusty look on top.

Cool for a few minutes and than sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Cool completely and then cut into squares.  The recipes says 1 inch squares.  Ummmm.... ours are always at least 2 inch squares.  As you can see by the picture, these were more like 3 inch squares but remember we were feeding 16 to 18 year old young men.


I had tripled my recipe and used a 9 x 13 pan for the other 2/3rds.  It all turned out delicious.  Luckily Craig saved back a couple or they all would have been eaten.  So glad they were enjoyed.