In Summer You Eat LEMON SQUARES

You heard me.  It's summer.  And while chocolate is good year round, summer is specifically the season of fruit desserts.  To kick this off, I made you some lemon squares.

This recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, and it is pretty delicious, although I found the directions a little unclear at times.  So I'm re-writing them a little, all for you, after this triptych of lemons.

Ooh, art.

Crust

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 c. flour
1/8 tsp. kosher salt

Custard:

6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
2 1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 c. flour

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Grease a 9"x13"x2" casserole dish (you know like the ones you make brownies in?) and set aside.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed (my dough at this point was a little flaky; that’s okay, just smoosh it later). Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into the greased casserole dish, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides.

Chill for about half an hour.  While the crust is chillin’, heat the oven to 350°F.

Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool to room temperature on a wire rack (leave the oven on).

For the lemon layer, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour.  Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or about five minutes beyond the point where the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into squares and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Look, a reamer!

My final word of caution: my oven doesn't cook evenly.  The back gets much hotter than the front.  This means that some of the bars are more solid than others.  If you have a similar problem with your oven, I recommend rotating the baking dish halfway through.

Enjoy your lemon-ing, friends!

Triumphant Return: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes!

Hi there.  It's been a while, and I'm sorry.

Like, really sorry.

SO SORRY.

But I think I have something that will make you forgive me.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the very first recipe I ever invented all by myself: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes.

Well, maybe I shouldn't say I did it all by my myself.  I had some help from these lovely books:

But, using the delicious knowledge I learned from these volumes, I invented a recipe.  Yup.  Here's how that looked:

But I can't complain.  For my first try, I think these came out GREAT.  Here's my very own recipe:

1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 can (6 oz.) frozen lemonade concentrate (I used pink lemonade)
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl (if you're using unsalted butter, you should add a little salt here as well).  Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add lemonade concentrate, lemon juice lemon extract, and vanilla extract.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk in intervals (like this: flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour).  I also added about 3 drops of yellow food coloring... just for effect.

Pour into cupcake holders and bake 18 minutes.

Oh look, cakes.  The recipe made about 20 cupcakes.  They were good, I think, although I might use cake flour next time to see if I can get a lighter texture.  I meant to use cake flour this time, actually, but I straight-up forgot.  Whoops.

They have a pretty intense lemony flavor, so I coupled them with a plain vanilla buttercream.  I think buttercream is something people should be able to improvise, but here are some approximate ingredients (make enough for about 24 cupcakes).

1 stick of butter
3 c. powdered sugar
3 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Then I dyed it delightful pink, to complete the Pink Lemonade effect.

Also, I know it's winter.  But maybe these cupcakes will help you forget about winter.  Not that winter is a real thing, here in Los Angeles.

Enjoy!