Lemon Bars

Lemon bars are actually buttery shortbread bars with a lemony filling.They are perfect anytime sweet confection.Serve them with tea/coffee or use them with berries or in a trifle. Traditionally/generally they are served coated/dusted with powdered sugar.I found a perfect recipe for these yellow bars in Colleen Patrick Gordeau's The Joy of Vegan Baking.

Ingredients:

Shortbread Crust
All Purpose Flour: 1 cup
Confectioners Sugar: 1/4 cup
Unsalted Butter/Vegan Butter: 1 stick at room temperature

Lemon Filling:
Tofu:1/2 cup ground into a paste with water/soymilk to replace 2 eggs.
Sugar: 1 cup or less depending on your sweet tooth
Lemon Zest: 2 lemons
Fresh Lemon Juice: from 2 big lemons
All Purpose Flour: 2 tbsp
Cornstarch: 1 tbsp

Serving
Confectioners Sugar for sprinkling
Fresh Strawberries/any other berries (optional)

Preparation:

Shortbread Crust:

In a bowl,cream together softened butter and confectioners sugar until fluffy and then add in flour and blend until just combined.You will get a crumbly dough.Gather the dough together and press/spread in the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch square bake pan,which has been greased and floured.Bake ina preheated oven at 350F for 20 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned.Cool on a wire rack while you make the filling.

Filling:

Blend tofu in a mixer/food processor/blender to obtain a creamy paste.I used soy milk for this.You can use water also.Add all the other ingredients in the blender and blend together to obtain a creamy thick filling.

Pour this filling on the top of the shortbread and bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes until the filling is set.Let it cool outside the oven.Cut into bars and serve.The recipe yields 10+ bars or 16 two inch squares.

Now while baking the crust,my oven gave up and so the crust was not browned,but it was done.So after pouring the filling,I baked for an extra 5-10 minutes so that the filling was almost set,but the crust was still not brown.So I must add that these are not so perfect lemon bars.

I served them with fresh strawberries,as the tartness of berries perfectly balances the sweetness of the bars and also the berries enhance the yellow colour of these bars. Usually they are served with a dusting of confectioners sugar which is done just before serving otherwise it will sink inside the bars.They can be served warm,cold,room temperature.We can also say it is similar to a lemon pie cut into bars.

Well these tangy sweet bars are on their way to FIC:Yellow where SunshineMom is happily gorging on Carrot Halwa after completing 1year of tongue tickling blogging-Excuse Me Sunshine 'Aunty'ji,these are also for you (Sorry,could not help a dig after the TOI review).

Also sorry for the pictures,it is getting dark here and I can barely get the correct pictures.The bars are creamy yellow though they may appear to be in some other colour to you.