Lemon bars with a minty twist

I took my first midterm this morning, and while I'm pretty sure I messed up a deferred revenue question, that hasn't stopped me from deferring studies for my next two midterms. Don't worry, those tests aren't until next week. Plus, I spent the afternoon working on a problem set that is due Friday, so I'm allowed a break, right?

In my last post, I mentioned that I set a goal of baking once a week. They say you should try to establish forcing mechanisms when you set new goals, and my forcing function is my learning team -- a group of four dudes that I have do all my group projects with. Four dudes and one girl? Welcome to B-school, kids. Anyway, I promised them I would bake something for our team meetings every week, hence the goal.

Back to the ovens!

I've done cookies two weeks in a row, so I wanted to mix things up a bit. Also, I made quinoa tabbouleh a few weeks ago, and I've had this little container of fresh mint drying up in my fridge since then. I hate wasting such expensive fresh herbs, so I wanted a recipe that could benefit from a dose of fresh mint.

What did I settle on? Lemon bars, of course! I found this recipe on Epicurious, but I had to make some adjustments because 1) I don't have a 9 x 13 pan, just a 9 x 9, 2) I don't like cleaning my food processor, and following this recipe as stated would have required cleaning the food processor twice for one recipe (um... pass!), and 3) I wanted to add mint!


To the first point, I have a terrible secret that bakers are never supposed to admit... Sometimes I fudge ingredient amounts. In this case, I was shooting for 2/3 of the given recipe, but how do you get 2/3 of 4 eggs? Or 2/3 of 1/2 a cup? I mean, obviously, there are ways to do that, but I don't think those methods are practical, so sometimes I just guesstimate. Life is about compromises. (Wow, so many life lessons on this blog already!)


Here's how I rolled:

For the shortbread:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup, less  about 1teaspoon packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

For the lemon filling:
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

20-25 mint leaves

2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line a 9 x 9-in baking pan with parchment paper. Cut butter into 1/2-inch pieces. Add dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and cut in the butter. I used a fork, because, well... I'm old fashioned. And I don't have a pastry cutter. And, as discussed, I don't like cleaning my food processor. 


Sprinkle mixture into a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan and with press evenly onto bottom with your fingers and palm. Bake shortbread in middle of oven until golden, about 20 minutes. While shortbread is baking, prepare topping.

In a bowl whisk together eggs and granulated sugar until combined well and stir in lemon juice and flour. Mince mint leaves by stacking them on top of each other, rolling the stack up like a cigarette, and cutting across the roll. 

Whisk mint into the lemon mixture. Pour lemon mixture over hot shortbread. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F. and bake confection in middle of oven until set, about 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan and cut into 24 bars. Bar cookies keep, covered and chilled, 3 days. Sift confectioners' sugar over bars before serving.

So how did they turn out? Check it out!

To be perfectly honest, I think I could have doubled or increased the mint by 50%, but there is definitely a hint of mint even now. Plus, my kitchen smells of toasty shortbread, tangy citrus, and fresh mint. Win on all fronts!

Actually, this is the second time I've baked this week -- the first time was to make an adapted version of these no sugar, no egg, no flour, no butter granola-bar-type things. The recipe called them "breakfast cookies," but the term "cookie" seems like a stretch. They're very "healthy" tasting, but since I'm the child of hippies, I don't mind things that smack vaguely of Kashi, circa 1995. Does anyone else remember the early days of Kashi? I do. One fateful bowl turned my 10-year-old self off the stuff for a decade. 




Now that I'm older, I don't actually mind whole grains, but I'm happy to report that these "cookies" that look kind of like dog biscuits or lumps of hard oatmeal are actually completely consumable. I have been eating them in the mornings as brain-food.