I don’t know about you – but I am so over winter. The snow has been beautiful, the root veggies have been great, the sweaters comfortable, but I am dying for sunlight and sandals and summer produce!

Thankfully, spring is en route, and these lemon bars are a perfect transition into the season. Using good winter citrus and a buttery shortbread crust, but still getting that zing found in fresh fruit desserts, they toe the line perfectly between the seasons, as we are doing right now.

My special addition here is limoncello, a traditional Italian digestif made from steeping lemon zest in alcohol and then adding sugar. We used to make it in-house at Lidia’s but you can find it at any liquor store. However, if you’re trying to save money, just sub the limoncello with lemon juice and they’re still molto deliziosa.

Bright and sunny!

Such an odd measuring spoon, but I love it.

Baked.

Thiiiiiiiick!

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Lemon Squares

Based loosely on the recipes from  Epicurious, Ina Garten, and CHOW.

I prefer my lemon squares to have a closer crust-to-curd ratio than many out there, so they’re not as thick as many you may see. When the filling is tart and ooey-gooey rich enough as it is here, however, I think you’ll warm to the idea!

Ingredients

For the shortbread crust:

• 1½ sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into cubes and kept very cold until used (reserve the wrapper to grease the pan)
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• ½ tablespoon lemon zest (be sure to scrub and wash your lemons before zesting)

For the filling:

• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1¼ cups granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons grated lemon zest (be sure to scrub and wash your lemons before zesting)
• ½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 4 lemons, depending on size)
• 3 tablespoons limoncello
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• About 1/3 cup powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 350° F with rack set in center of oven. Grease a 9x13x2-inch baking dish with the reserved butter wrapper and set aside.

2.) Prepare the crust. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together the flour, salt, sugar, and zest. Get the butter out of the fridge and add to the bowl, pulsing a few times until incorporated. The dough will be very loose, but stick together when clumped.

3.) Dump the dough out into the prepared baking dish, jiggle to evenly distribute, and using either your floured hands or a drinking glass with the based dipped in flour, spread and press the dough into the pan. Bake until stiff and fragrant, about 15-20 minutes. The dough will not brown. Remove and make the filling while it cools on a wire rack.

4.) Make the filling. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, limoncello, and flour. Pour over warm (but not hot) crust and bake 25-30 minutes until set, but still slightly jiggly.

5.) Let cool completely on wire rack before sprinkling with more powdered sugar. Cut into 24 squares and enjoy!

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