Lemon Bars

So last week I was craving lemon bars.  So I dug out my favorite recipe and set about making it gluten free.  I found this recipe in the March 1999 issue of Gourmet magazine (I miss Gourmet...), I made it back then and fell in love with it.  I hadn't made it since being diagnosed with Celiac almost 7 years ago.  But when the craving struck I went back to my issues of Gourmet and found this recipe.

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (it does taste better with fresh juice but I only had Real Lemon, it was fine)
1/3 cup gluten free flour  (I used Bette's featherlight blend)
Hot Shortbread Base (recipe follows)
3 Tablespoon powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350
Whisk together eggs and sugar in a bowl until well combined.  Stir in lemon juice and flour.  Pour lemon mixture over hot shortbread.  Turn down oven to 300 and bake bars in middle of he oven until set, about 30 minutes.   Cool completely in pan and then cut into 24 bars.  Lemon bars keep, covered and chilled for 3 days.  Sift the powdered sugar over the bars before serving.

Shortbread Base

1 1/2 sticks of butter (unsalted)
2 cups gluten free flour
1 teaspoon Xanthan gum
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350.
Cut butter into 1/2 inch pieces.  In a food processor combine all ingredients until mixture begins to form small lumps.  Sprinkle mixture into a 13x9x2 inch baking pan.  With a spatula or your fingers press mixture evenly onto bottom of pan.  Bake shortbread in the middle of the oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Prepare topping while shortbread is baking.

I don't even take the shortbread pan out of the oven, I jut pull out the oven rack and pour the filling into the hot base, make sure it is evenly distributed and put it right back into the oven to bake.

You can also use lime juice and make lime bars, but I don't like them as much.  I am sorry about the quality of the picture this week.  I only had a few bars left to take a photo of and my husband left the tray of bars out and the dog knocked them off the counter and the landed upside down, at least they were covered with foil so they were still good to eat.  But they didn't look as nice as they used to.  But I don't go by looks, if it tastes good I am happy.

I am planning to switch gears a bit int he next few weeks since  I didn't do much baking but I made lasagna and beef stroganoff.  So I will have some dinner ideas for a few weeks and then probably back to the baking.  Or maybe gluten free dog treats...