Raising the (Lemon)Bar

On lawyers, judges and the best lemon dessert ever.

Hello! I’m back after a brief break.

No, I was not at the Venice Film Festival with Harry Styles (although I did see him perform live— for the second time—in August, with my daughter.) Neither was I binging The Real Housewives of Dubai, although if I did, would MSNBC promise to play the show promo maybe only 12 times a day instead of 3 times an hour?

I was overwhelmed by a tsunami of Things That Needed Doing, some happy, others emotional, some happy and emotional, and others mundane. Got the daughter off to a new school, made dozens of cookies for my niece’s wedding rehearsal dinner, figured out high school stuff with my son, etc. etc.

And, perhaps like you, I’ve been watching and reading everything I can about Mar-a-Lago, Judge Cannon’s redorkulous “One Rule for Thee, Another for Emperor T” decision about a special master and last night’s (nuclear) bombshell from WashPo.

As for nuclear secrets…The article mentions an overseer for documents like this one who is supposed to know where the doc is at all times...which makes me ask…why didn’t they know it was gone? Or try to get it back sooner? And why-oh-why isn’t he being taken straight to jail?

In news from the non-sequitur: I’ve become obsessed with growing dahlias.

Some folks have religion or meditation to calm them, especially in moments like this one, where it seems the neon yam (aka Donald) continues to use and abuse the legal system to his own benefit (Yoooo-hoo! Lawyers of Donald: You won’t be getting paid!). I bake cookies.

One of my wonderful nieces got married this weekend. She got engaged over a batch of warm Insomnia Cookies (which should give you a sense of what a keeper her now husband is), so I baked up cookies for the rehearsal dinner.

Chocolate peanut butter cup cookies

Here’s what I made, with links to the recipes:

1. Reasonably nutritious chocolate chip cookies

2. S’mores cookies (new, improved recipe!)

3. Soft, puffy snickerdoodles

4. Chocolate peanut butter cookies

5. Lemon bars (see below!)

The lemon bars are a recipe from my favorite chef-teacher from the Institute of Culinary Education, Cara Tannenbaum. You’ve undoubtedly had lemon bars in your life. Thanks to generous amounts of fresh lemon juice and zest, these lemon bars are exemplary.

I made them along with comedian/actress Kathy Griffin for my first-ever episode of The Secret Life of Cookies podcast.

Lemon bars are easy to make and are fit for a picnic or dessert after a meal where you’re trying to impress people. You can use a tart pan instead of a 13 x 9 pan to make the the bars and end up with a stunning lemon tart. (You will have leftover crust and filling.) Alternatively, you can feed a crowd: just double the recipe and bake them in a jelly roll pan. Present your guests with beautiful, uniform inside pieces and save all the crunchy crusts for yourself and those you love the most.

Chef gets the best bits.

LEMON BARS

(tweaked ever-so-slightly from the recipe of Cara Tannenbaum)

What you need: 

A 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan 

Ingredients for the cookie base: 

16 tablespoons (2 sticks/8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened 

½ cup (50 grams) confectioners’ sugar 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

2 cups (256 grams) all-purpose flour 

Ingredients for the lemon topping: 

4 large eggs 

2 cups (400 grams) granulated white sugar 

6 tablespoons strained lemon juice 

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest 

Confectioners’ sugar for finishing 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. For the base, with a stand/hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla and continue beating a minute or two, until light. Lower the speed and beat in the flour. 

3. Drop lumps of dough over the bottom of the prepared pan, and using a small offset spatula, the bottom of a glass, or your fingers, pat, pat, pat the dough across the bottom of the pan. Bake the base for 20 to 25 minutes, until light golden and baked through. 

4. While the base is baking prepare the topping. Be careful not to overmix the topping, or it will have a coarse-textured foam on the top when baked. In a large mixing  bowl, whisk the eggs just to break them up. Whisk in the sugar, then the lemon juice and zest. 

5. As soon as the base is baked, remove it from the oven. Give the lemon mixture a quick whisk to make sure everything is well-blended, and pour it on the base. Immediately return the pan to the oven without sploshing the topping everywhere. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the topping is set and firm, but not rigid. 

6. Cool on a wire rack until set. Cut into squares and sprinkle confectioners sugar over before serving.

7. It may just be me, but I love these cold, straight from the refrigerator.

Enjoy.

For later this week I’m thinking of making a zucchini-apple spice cake. Is it too early for apple desserts? Am I jumping the spice-flavored gun? LMK.

Leave a comment! Tell me how your week has been! What tasks have been busying your life? What do you think about Judge Cannon? When is it okay to have apple-spice recipes? Is there a date? Is it like not wearing white after Labor Day? LET ME KNOW.

ps: Bosco thanks you for all the kind wishes for his recovery! He’s doing great. Back to his old self. Thanks be.

This is Clyde. He looks like Bosco in cat form. Clyde thinks there has been too much talk of Bosco and he thinks you should most definitely pay attention to him or he will pee on the front door again.