The flavour of lemon in just about anything — desserts, yogurt, candies, sauces — is a favourite of mine. It’s the authentic concentrated flavor I like; flavour that comes from the lemon oil in the peel instead of being artificially-produced by Mr. Sherriff, Mrs. Jello or Dr. Oetker.
Lemon pie is ubiquitous, and most of it is bad. It’s not just that it is basically just stiff pudding in a graham wafer shell, it’s that yucky slimy beaten egg white we insist on piling on top. There is nothing more useless in the culinary world that beaten egg white on pie. Egg white in omelette, good. Egg white flavoured with red currant juice in a Dutch dessert called “haagse bluf”, good. Egg white on pie? Bad.
Lemon squares. Now that’s a dessert! Even the most mundane lemon square beats lemon pie hands down.
I have three recipes, with various degrees of complexity, and all of them with a common ingredient: lemon zest. They also have a common shortbread-type base that doesn’t fall apart.
Let me provide a brief description of each, starting with the very best (which also takes the most work). The full recipes are online at www.mytwobits.ca; look for this column and you’ll find the recipes. Try them, tell me they don’t beat lemon pie hands-down.
Extra-Silky Lemon Squares: The pastry for this one is buttery, not sweet, and speckled with lemon zest. It’s a cross between a classic sugar cookie and lemon shortbread. The filling is ultra-silky smooth, thanks to a load of egg yolk and it being strained to get rid of the lemon zest and coagulated lumps of chalazae. (Stumped you with that one? Look it up). There is no flour or cornstarch in the filling, which gives it a bright daffodil-yellow colour and shine. You will have eight egg whites left over. You can always make lemon meringue pie with them, for those who disagree with this column.
The Best Lemon Bars: That’s their name for them, not mine. For the best, see Extra-Silky above. This one is considerably simpler, and quicker to make. Fewer eggs and a much simpler pastry base. The nice touch with this one is a lemon glaze you drizzle over top, giving it an extra burst of flavour, a bit more sweetness, and it looks good.
Lemon Bars: Yup, plain lemon bars. But this one has half-and-half cream in the filling, but like The Best above, it has flour in the filling which gives the filling a cloudy look compared to the translucent appearance of Extra-Silky.
One of the great debates about baking with lemon is the pan you should use. The acid in the lemon filling will react with a plain old aluminum pan, so glass is often used. But ceramic and glass doesn’t heat evenly and retains heat for a long time, meaning the edges could burn before the centre is set. Some recommend stainless steel (which is expensive) or anodized aluminum pans, but there is still debate about the safety of those.
Use whatever pan you have. Then line it with parchment paper before adding the base and filling. That does two things: keeps the food out of contact with the pan, and makes it much easier to lift the whole thing out of the pan once cool, so you can cut it into squares or bars.
And if the edges burn a bit, well, trim them off. And eat them. Still better than lemon meringue pie.
Comments? Questions? Go to www.mytwobits.ca where this and previous columns are also available.
