Tried a New Recipe, Lemon Heaven Bars or Lemon Brownies

The hubs needed a lemon so he bought a bag of lemons and I had to figure out a way to use up the rest of the lemons. I don't know if the store was not selling single lemons, but I like the challenge of trying to figure out what to do with the extra lemons.

  After googling things to make with fresh lemons I decided on this recipe.  Lemon Heaven Bars looked reasonably easy and delicious.

INGREDIENTS

For the lemon bars 

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• fresh lemon zest from 2 large lemons
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs
• 1/3 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp. pre vanilla 

For the lemon glaze

• 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• fresh lemon zest from 1 large lemon

INSTRUCTIONS

1. For the lemon bars: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper so that two opposite sides have an overhang.  I did not do this, but I did spray the pan with coconut Pam, which worked just fine. 

2.  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add lemon zest and whisk again to separate and coat the little pieces of zest.  Set bowl aside.  

3.  In a small bowl, whisk together butter, eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla. 

4.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool completely on wire rack.

5.  For the lemon glaze:  In a small bowl, whisk together all glaze ingredients until smooth.  Drizzle glaze over top of cooled lemon bars and then use a spatula or back of a spoon to spread glaze evenly.  

Place pan in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Cut into squares.  The original poster suggests keeping the bars chilled and serve cool. 

My review of this recipe is that it is easy to put together after the initial work of zesting and squeezing the lemons.  The taste of the fresh lemon in the bars and in the glaze really is delicious.
We found that the bars were much better the next day and they did taste better cooled.  

If you have extra lemons lying around, I would suggest trying this recipe out on your family.  They will love it.