Rosemary Lemon Bars

Rosemary Lemon Bars

Makes 20-ish bars

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

2.5 - 3 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary

1/3 cup flour

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Gather your ingrediants. Line a 9 x 13-inch pan or any kind of pan that’s easy to line with parchment paper. Lightly grease pan with butter or nonstick spray.

For the crust:  Mix dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, rosemary, lemon zest and salt) then add in cold pieces of butter using pastry cutter to blend until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. You can use a food processor to pulse if you don’t mind the extra clean up. Incorporate all ingredients together until combined and crumbly. Put mixture into prepared pan and press firmly with your fingers into you get an even layer over the entire pan. It should be about 1/2-inch high up sides. Poke a few holes with a fork so the crust doesn’t puff up and bake unevenly. Bake the crust until edges turn lightly golden brown, about 20 - 25 minutes.

While crust is baking, mix the filling so it’s ready to pour on the hot crust.

For the filling: In a medium bowl beat the eggs. Then add the remaining filling ingredients and whisk until combined. You don’t need to whisk too much.

When you pull out the crust, stir the filling one more time to re-blend. Pour the filling onto crust. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake until the filling feels pretty firm to the touch. Should be about 20-30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. For easier cutting either heat up a knife and cut the bars or refrigerator them for a couple of hours. Dust with powdered sugar and decorate!