Mrs. Adams' Lemon Bars

Lemon is one of my favorite flavors in everything from Mike & Ike candies to cake so it doesn't take much persuading to get me to make up a batch of lemon anything.    A friend phoned to plan a visit and I asked what she would like for a treat to go with our tea, giving her a couple of options.  She opted for Lemon Bars and I didn't argue!

The recipe for Lemon Bars in Gram's box came from Eleanor Adams, a friend of my Gram's who lived in our small town.  I remember Mr. and Mrs. Adams well.   They owned the "Y", a small coffee counter with a weigh station located at the junction (the "Y") of the highway and the turn-off into town.  They served coffee all day and hamburgers at lunch time, but most importantly Mrs. Adams made cherry pies every day for which she was well known. I was pretty young when the Adams' retired and closed the Y but I remember sitting at the counter and asking my Dad to buy a punchboard ticket so that I could punch it out.  Apparently kids weren't supposed to do this since it was technically gambling but I just thought it was a fun game!  If you aren't familiar with punchboards there is a pretty good description on on Wikipedia that can be found by clicking here.)

Back to the Lemon Bars . . .  because of my love of this tart fruit, I've made a lot of lemon filled treats over the years and when I reviewed this recipe I was surprised to see that the lemon mixture in this recipe did not contain any butter.   This got me to wondering about the differences between lemon custard, pie filling, and curd.  Some internet research led me to the conclusion that in practice there are not a lot of hard and fast rules about these distinctions - there are a myriad of recipes and techniques that use these terms interchangeably.

There is definitely an academic distinction though and while butter is a factor, its not the defining one that I suspected it might be - curds that contain butter (not a required ingredient) have a creamier texture than filling or custards, both of which contain little or no butter.  Curd has a stronger, tarter flavor due to more juice and zest than is used in filling or custard.  The primary distinction is that filling and custard use cornstarch or flour as their thickening agent.

With that question answered and the research behind me I was more comfortable proceeding with this recipe as is knowing that it used a traditional filling type of mixture rather than a curd to top the shortbread crust.

Lemon Bars are "double baked", first the crust is pre-baked and a stove-top cooked filling is poured over the crust before putting it all back in the oven for a final bake to set the filling.  I took a couple of liberties in the preparation of this recipe - I used a food processor to make the crust and I added the zest of a lemon to the filling for just a bit more zing (have I mentioned I LOVE lemon?).  The crust has a very high proportion of butter to flour which made pressing the crust evenly into the pan a little difficult - it is very soft.  The results are worth the little extra patience needed as the resulting crust is a perfect rich, buttery compliment to the tart lemon filling.

MRS. ADAMS' LEMON BARS
Crust:
1 C butter
1/2 C powdered sugar
2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt

Filling:
4 eggs, beaten
2 C sugar
1/4 C flour
6 T lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Confectioner's sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 9x13 pan with heavy duty foil or two layers of regular, ensuring enough hang-over on the ends to use as handles to remove the bars from pan after baking.  Grease foil generously and thoroughly with butter.  Place all ingredients for crust in the bowl of a food processor and process until dough just comes together.  Press dough evenly in prepared pan, dough will be very soft.  Bake 20 - 25 minutes until crust is lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
To make filling, whisk eggs and sugar in a medium heavy saucepan over med-high heat.  Add flour, lemon juice, and zest if using and heat until thickened - the filling is done when you can make a trail through it with your finger on the back of the spoon.  Do not overcook as the filling will scorch.  Pour cooked filling over crust and bake until edges are set and center jiggles slightly, 15 - 20 minutes.  Cool completely on wire rack.  Using foil overhang, lift bars from pan and cut into squares.  Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.