Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and linked up with Lindsay and me these past 12 days. It’s been a lot of fun to share some of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes with y’all! Today is the last day to link up, so feel free to add any recipes to the previous days.
I don’t remember us ever leaving cookies for Santa. Same with the gingerbread, this was just not a tradition that we ever really got excited about. But I lovelovelove lemon bars, and I think the citrus would be a nice break from the millions of chocolate chip cookies Santa enjoys on Christmas Eve.
Lemon bars
Ingredients
Scale
- Crust
- 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, plus more for pan
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
- Topping
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the center of oven. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
- To make crust: In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt; process to combine. Add butter to processor and process until mixture is pale yellow and resembles a coarse meal, about 10 seconds. Add butter and work into flour mixture using a pastry blender or your fingers.
- Pour crust mixture into prepared baking dish, pressing down with your fingers to create a 1/4-inch-thick layer along the bottom and 1/2-inch up the sides, pressing firmly at the edges to seal. Transfer pan to freezer and freeze for 30 minutes. Transfer to oven and bake, rotating pan once during baking, until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
- Topping: In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, and flour; stir in lemon juice, milk, and salt until well combined.
- Remove baking pan from oven. Stir topping and pour into warm crust. Return pan to oven and continue baking until topping is just set but not browned, about 20 minutes.
- Transfer baking pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into 20 squares. Serve immediately or wrap each bar tightly with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
kjlk
‘); // ]]>
Jen says
Yum! I love lemon bars!
Stephanie Whitener says
We love lemon bars in our house too! We never did cookies for Santa either so you aren’t alone in missing that tradition.