Lemon Bars

I had a few lemons that I needed to use up so I decided to make lemon bars to take over to my neighbors for dinner. I had no idea that they were my neighbors favorite so I had a tough critic, lucky for me he loved them and wanted the recipe! The original recipe was a little funky and the ingredients didn't add up so I tweaked it to work for me and it turned out super easy and delicious!

Crust:

1 cup flour

½ cup powdered sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt (you won't have measuring spoon so just eye half of a ¼ teaspoon)

1 stick cold butter, cut into little pieces

Filling:

1 cup regular sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

¼ vanilla extract

2 teaspoons lemon zest (about 2 lemons)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 ½ lemons)

Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat 350 degrees

To make the crust: Grease an 8x8 pan with cooking spray. In a bowl whisk flour, powdered sugar, and salt together. Add butter and with your hand mix until crumbly. Press crust mixture into the bottom of the 8x8 pan (If the crust starts to stick to your hand put it into the freezer for 5 about minutes and then press it into place). Bake for 18 minutes until golden brown. Set crust aside.

To make the filling: In a bowl whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Add eggs until combine. Add lemon zest and lemon juice until mixed well. Pour the lemon filling over the hot crust. Bake for 18 minutes or until the filling has set.  

Cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar. So GOOD!

For the printable recipe click here.

Strawberry Galette

My husband loves this dessert with vanilla ice-cream! It’s a very light dessert so it's perfect if you want something tasty but not to filling. It's great if your strawberries are looking a little sad and need to be used! You can also serve it with homemade whip cream if your into that sort of thing.

1 pie crust (pre-made or if your channeling your inner Martha Stewart you can make your own, I used pre-made)

15 strawberries, sliced

2 tablespoons sugar          

Raw Sugar for sprinkling (you can use regular sugar if you don't have it but it tastes slightly different and looks prettier with the raw)

1 teaspoon vanilla paste (optional, this is a little hard to find so if you don't have it don't worry about it)

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 egg

1 teaspoon water

Preheat 350 degrees.

Serving size: 4

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Put sliced strawberries into a bowl, sprinkle with sugar, cornstarch and the very optional vanilla paste.  Mix until all the berries are coated. 

 Lay out the pie dough on the parchment paper.

Starting from the middle and working out overlap the strawberries forming a circle about 1-inch from the edge of the pie crust.

Fold the edges of the dough over the strawberries to form a square (the middle will have the strawberries exposed).

Now fold the corners over.

Beat 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water (this is called an egg wash). Brush the dough with the egg wash. Sprinkle crust with raw sugar.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

Click here for the printable recipe.