Saturday, March 2, 2013

Lemon Bars for 64 vs Lemon Bars for 15

Baking for so many people was an issue this week. Apparently there are other things you need to think about when you multiply a recipe by 8. This is when knowing the science of cooking would be incredibly helpful. I challenged cooking science and it won. It won a lot.

This week I attempted lemon bars and they turned out to be an epic disaster. Snack was unacceptably late and it was nothing like it was suppose to be. It took way too long to cook and it never set in the freezer even though I tried to hurry it up and put it in a tray of ice in the freezer. They turned out to be less lemon bar and more shortbread cookie base with lemon curd pudding jiggly mess on top. I was thinking about not posting this one but I'm going to because even though it was a failure it's a testament to how difficult cooking for this many people is.

Lemons are pretty


When you bake for so many people its scary how much butter is used.

The shortbread cookie base was delicious. I want to use this base for more bar type cookies. Also the recipe was pretty simple. If I had to wash my own dishes it would be great because I only used the food processor and measuring cups. Recipes with few dishes are the best. However, never having to wash my own dishes is better.

Maxed out the food processors capcity


Before I knew it would be a disaster

This recipe is also fun because it's not wasteful. It uses every last bit of the lemon. You just slice the lemon into thin slices, make sure there aren't any seeds, and throw the whole slice into the food processor with some sugar. Magic!

Don't be fooled. It looks pretty. But its a jiggly mess under that powdered sugar.

However, I was really craving lemon bars, and the failed attempt did not appease my desire. So, on Thursday, I tried again! Except this time I made one, in and 8x8, rather than two in 13x20's. These turned out impecable. Exactly how a lemon bar is supposed to be. My taste buds were definitely appeased. 

Take two!




So much better


I'm not very good at cutting straight...

When I make it again I think I might make the shortbread cookie base thicker, because it was that good, and I would of liked a closer lemon to cookie ratio.

Lemon bar perfection

Writing this post makes me want to make more. Relatively simple. Not very time consuming (when not making them for 64). And incredibly delicious.

Recipe (similar to this): Lemon Bars
    Differences from her book: For crust- 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp salt 8 tbsp butter
                                                For filling- 1 medium lemon, 1and 1/3 cups sugar, 8 tbsp butter (in 
                                                                  chunks), 4 large eggs, 2 tbsp cornstarch, 1/4 tsp salt
                                  The directions are similar. Except, for the crust use the food processor. For the 
                                  filling also use the food processor and begin with tossing the lemon rounds into
                                  the food processor with the sugar and running it until it is pureed. Then add the
                                  butter, then the eggs, cornstarch and salt. The rest is the same. Enjoy!!

Another similar and fun recipe I would like to try (and probably will very soon): Pink Lemonade Bars 

3 comments:

  1. Oh woops, I see now that smitten kitchen's recipe uses raspberries as well :) AH SUMMER! I wanna try that with blackberries cause they're basically free here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wait...the comment before this said that I am jealous of your food processor and that I made these a few times and it is delish but i know it's not smitten kitchen: http://www.sophistimom.com/bake-sale-week-raspberry-lemonade-bars/

      I don't know where the comment went

      Delete
  2. i have no idea how i am going to live with out a food processor and a kitchen aid. its so not okay.
    i tried the raspberry ones with frozen raspberries. they were so yum.
    also, i love how blackberries grow wild here! makes summer even more magical.

    ReplyDelete