Experiment #35: Lemon Bars

Back in college I bought this book on sale at the local bookstore called The Bed & Breakfast Cookbook by Martha W. Murphy.  The recipes include all your favorite brunch recipes like eggs, pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc.  I made a few recipes from the book, a Cinnamon Coffeecake and lemon bars.  Back in college, I used to use a lot of sugar and no whole wheat.

Now I reduce the sugar in all of the recipes that I make and I think it helps the flavor of the other ingredients to shine.  Lemon is one of my favorite flavors and our lemon tree is still producing a large amount of lemons so I decided that it was time to make a batch of lemon bars.

I decided that I would try to make the crust with half white whole wheat replacing half of the all purpose flour.  I also ran out of regular sugar for the filling and had to use some powdered sugar.  Somehow I ended up with 2 unopened bags of powdered sugar and no regular sugar.  Ha!

Lemon Bars adapted from Bed and Breakfast Cookbook by Martha W. Murphy
Shortbread crust:
1 cup butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar), sifted
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour

Filling:
4 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the crust: 
Combine the flour, sugar and butter together thoroughly.  You can use a fork.  I used a pastry cutter.  It helps if the butter is very soft, at room temperature.  Pat into greased 9" X 13" pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 25 minutes or until golden.

To make the filling:
Combine eggs, sugar and lemon juice and beat well.  In a separate bowl mix other ingredients; add to egg mixture and combine well.

Pour over the baked crust.  Return to oven and bake at 350 degree F for an additional 15 to 25 minutes.

Cool thoroughly on a rack, then cut into bars. Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar if you want.

Results:
The lemon bars were delicious!  I thought the half whole wheat crust was tasty.  The bars were good, but I would make more filling as I thought the ratio of filling to crust was a bit off.  I might try to do twice the filling.