Alright, “world famous” may be a bit of an exaggeration. But my friends literally bother me at least once a week about making these, and it’s a given that I have to make them for every dinner or BBQ. The key to these bars is making the crust from scratch (don’t worry, it’s easy), and using meyer lemons if you can find them. Anything with citrus screams “summer dessert” at me, so this is perfect for your 4th of July BBQ! Recipe was found from here, and it’s best to make these the night before you plan on serving them, as they need to cool.

You will need:

For the crust

• 2 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup butter, melted

For the filling

• 4 eggs
• 5/8 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice (preferably meyer lemon)
•  (2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

First things first, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13 baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. You could grease the pan and put your baking mixture directly in it, but the last time my cousin (who, by the way, has an awesome fashion blog) did that, we ended up throwing the pan out because we couldn’t get the lemon bars out for the life of us. So, word to the wise: use parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Put 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt the butter. Get a large mixing bowl and sift together 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar, mixing together. You want to make sure your dry mixture is mixed well so you don’t have clumps and the flavor is evenly distributed. Pour the melted butter into the mixing bowl and mix together to form your dough. It should be pretty soft–the butter is what gives this crust the flavor.

Press the dough in the bottom of your prepared pan evenly to cover the bottom. Honestly, the best way to do this is with your super clean hands.

Using a fork, poke holes in the dough to prevent the dough from rising while it bakes.

Stick the pan in the oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown.

After the crust is done, remove and set aside to cool for a bit. In the meantime, get your lemon juice ready. I like to put a small strainer over the measuring cup to make sure no seeds or pulp get through and it’s just juice.

5/8 of a cup is a weird measurement, I know. But the original recipe calls for it. I just measure until it’s a little above the 1/2 cup mark:

Grab a large mixing bowl and crack 4 eggs in there. In a separate bowl, combine your sugar, flour, and baking powder. Again, make sure there are no lumps and everything is evenly mixed.

Beat your eggs until nice and fluffy…

and then add the sugar/flour/baking powder mixture. It will form a thick mixture, like so:

Add your lemon juice, whisk together until the mixture is evenly incorporated (you’ll notice it thins out), and pour over the prepared crust. Put the pan back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

  

You’ll notice it brown on top–don’t worry! It’s not burnt. And we’re going to dust these with powdered sugar later.

After 30 minutes, remove the pan and set aside so it cools completely. Cover loosely with either plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and put it in your fridge overnight.

The next day, carefully remove the bars from the pan. I always leave extra parchment paper on the side so I can just grab the paper out of the pan. Trim all 4 sides for presentation purposes, and cut into squares. I’ve got a lot of people coming over today so I made fairly small squares.

Dust with powdered sugar, and you’re done!