A friend who lives nearby dropped off a big bag of lemons at my door the other day, so I took the opportunity to make lemon bars. Alas, this recipe calls for only one medium lemon, so with the remainder I’ll be making homemade limoncello.

Some other tips for using up a basketful of lemons…

Zest the lemons, freeze the zest by spreading it out on a parchment lined cookie sheet, once frozen, move the zest to a freezer safe container for later use.
Juice the lemons and freeze the juice in an ice cube tray - a silicone mold works great. Once frozen remove to a ziploc bag and save in the freezer until you need a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice. You can also keep a small bottle of fresh lemon juice in the fridge for a couple of weeks
Now that you have all this left over lemon rind, cut it up and freeze it too. Cut it into strips and freeze on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Once the pieces of rind are frozen, put them in a ziploc bag and back in the freezer. You can use these later for cleaning.

Freezing things separately will ensure that they don’t stick together and create a big clump. This makes it easier to get just what you need, when you need it later.

More on the limoncello later… For now, just make some lemon bars.

Lemon Bars

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Course Dessert

Servings 16 bars

Ingredients

For the crust

⅓ cup butter slightly softened
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 cup flour

For the filling

2 large eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp lemon zest or more to taste
¼ cup fresh lemon juice about 1 medium lemon
¼ tsp baking powder
powdered sugar for dusting optional

Instructions

Make the crust

Preheat the oven to 350°F
In a medium bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the granulated sugar to the butter and continue to beat until combined completely. Add the 2 tablespoons of flour and mix until everything resembles course crumbs (sort of the consistency of bread crumbs).
Press the crumb mixture into an ungreased square pan (8x8x2). Bake at 350° for about 15-20 minutes until set and light golden brown

Make the filling

While the crust is baking. Mix all of the filling ingredients in a medium bowl until well combined (about 2 minutes).

Assemble

Once the crust is done baking, remove it from the oven and carefully pour the filling over it. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes. When done, the edges will be light brown and the center will be set.
Let cool completely then cut into 16 bars. Sift powdered sugar over the top if desired.

Keyword cookies, lemons

When Friends Give You Lemons, Make Lemon Bars