Tangy Lemon-Lime Bars

     We finally had our oven repaired yesterday, so naturally, I made lemon bars to celebrate. My love of citrus is no secret, but for some reason, I never got around to making these until now. On a recent trip to the grocery store, I was very disturbed to find a lemon bar kit in the boxed cake mix section. Regular boxed cake mix is pointless enough, but I'm afraid to know what's in the lemon bar box. Hopefully they let you at least supply your own lemons instead of giving you some gloppy, sugary mess in a can. But even if that is the case, they're still charging you way too much for just some sugar and flour in a box. I've said it before and I know I'll be saying it forever: Baking from scratch is not nearly as hard as you think! In fact, this refreshing summer treat takes less than 45 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:
for crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 stick of cold butter

for filling:
juice of 3 lemons and zest of 1
juice of 3 limes and zest of 1 (Juice should total between 2/3 and 3/4 cups.)
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup flour
4 eggs
extra powdered sugar for the top

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray and then line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper. Make sure the paper comes all the way up on 2 opposite sides of the pan so that the bars are easy to lift out after baking. As you'll see in the pictures, I was dumb and didn't do this.
2. For the first time in my life, I actually made a pie crust in a food processor like you're supposed to. If you have one, pulse all of the crust ingredients in it until the butter looks like small peas. Cut the butter into tiny cubes first and add them gradually. It shouldn't take very many pulses. Alternatively, use a pastry cutter to do this by hand.

3. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of your pan and bake it for 20 minutes. Before you bake it, it may seem too crumbly, but don't worry, it turns out perfect. Then, when it's slightly browned, remove it from the oven and lower the heat to 300.

4. While the crust is baking, zest and juice the lemons and limes into a small bowl.

5. In a medium bowl, stir the sugar and flour together, then whisk in the eggs one at a time. Finally, add the bowl of citrusy goodness and whisk until completely smooth.

6. Pour this over the slightly cooled crust and bake for 20-25 minutes on 300.

When it's done, it'll be yellower and feel a little bit spongy on top and won't jiggle in the middle.

7. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Then, run a butter knife around the edges before lifting it out of the pan by holding the sides of the parchment paper. Let it cool for another half hour or so and then cut them into squares with a sharp knife. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top if you're serving them right away. Otherwise, stick them in the fridge and wait on the powdered sugar because it absorbs and becomes invisible pretty quickly.

Enjoy, and come back tomorrow for one of my European favorites!