Lemon Squares

Fern's sister is staying with us for her summer vacation.  She likes lemon treats and last year I found a Lemon Snap recipe for her of which I made several batches.  I thought they were ok, but I also knew there had to be much better recipes around. I looked in my Joy of Cooking and for the first time I couldn't find a type of recipe. Joy of Cooking has no lemon cookie recipe. It does have a lemon square recipe that sounded interesting. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with parchment and spray with a little oil on it.

Lemon Squares

Crust

1 cup flour

1/4 cup confectioner's or icing sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

Combine ingredients, press into the bottom of the pan to form an even layer.  Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes.  While that's baking mix

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 slightly beaten eggs

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp grated lemon peel

(1/2 cup flaked coconut - optional - I hate flaked coconut so would never add it.)

pour onto hot baked crust and bake 25 minutes more. Let cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and cutting into squares. These are really delicious.  Not too sweet. Not too heavy. A really nice light dessert. The filling was thicker out of the oven but fell as it cooled.  Next time I'm going to try adding a little cream of tartar to the recipe to see if it will stabilize the egg so it doesn't fall. When I experiment like that I'm always prepared to toss the result in the garbage if it doesn't work. I never experiment on guests.