When we first started the blog, our intention was to share my grandmother’s recipes with our family and evoke memories they had of those who are no longer with us. Mom and I will always enjoy sharing those recipes but the more we do this the more we realize that we are doing it for us. There are recipes that Mom has collected over the years, or ones that friends have shared with us that are just as important. No matter where the recipe comes from Mom and I love sharing them and we especially love figuring out what colour scheme we are going to go with, or what plates and tablecloths we should use for our photos. We may have slowed down a bit this year, but the juices are starting to flow and we look forward to sharing more recipes both new and old.
One of the biggest challenges of blogging is making sure no one touches the baking until the pictures are taken. My brother and Dad will come into the kitchen and ask, “What’s that?” and our immediate response is you can’t have it until we take pictures. It is especially difficult when my brother is home and we have made something he loves like lemon square.
We don’t have a lot of memories around lemon squares except for one involving my brother. Based on what I shared above you might be able to guess what happened. My mother had made lemon squares for my grandmother’s memorial, she loved lemon, and we had some leftovers. Mom thought it best to freeze them. Imagine her surprise when we went to pull some out of the freezer and all, but a few were gone. Yes, one giant brother sized mouse had demolished them. We didn’t know it at the time, but he really loves lemon square. When we decided to post this recipe we were very clear that he had to wait.
Although we sometimes must hold the boys back, we both really appreciate having in house taste testers to make sure the recipes work. They were more than happy to test the lemon squares. We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my brother does!
Base Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup icing sugar
½ cup salted butter at room temperature
⅓ shredded sweetened coconut
Dice butter into ½” square pieces, leave them on the cutting board to come to room temperature. In a large bowl whisk together the flour and icing sugar. Add the room temperature butter tossing in the flour until covered.
Squeeze the butter between the tips of your fingers and thumb working it into the flour and sugar. Once the pieces of butter are smaller you can use two knives to cut the butter until most of the mixture is fine crumbs. Stir in coconut.
Pour the mixture into an 8” by 8” square pan lined with parchment paper. Spread the crumbs until they evenly coat the bottom of the pan.
Use an offset spatula, the bottom of a measuring cup or your hand to gently pat the crumbs down. Bake in a 350°F oven for 25 minutes until golden. Allow to cool slightly on a cooling rack.
Topping Ingredients
2 large eggs at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon rind
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp or a pinch of salt
2 tbsp icing sugar for sprinkling on top once baked
In a medium sized bowl or a large measuring cup beat the room temperature eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until pale, thick, and the volume has almost doubled.
Gently beat in the juice and rind, then add the flour mixture until just incorporated.
Pour over the base and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and set in the middle.
Allow to cool completely.
Once cooled sprinkle with icing sugar. Cut into squares, or if you want smaller pieces into triangles. Enjoy!
Lemon Squares
Ingredients
Base
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup icing sugar
- ½ cup salted butter at room temperature
- ⅓ cup shredded sweetened coconut
Topping
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon rind
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp salt or a pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp icing sugar for sprinkling on top once baked
Instructions
Base
- Dice butter into ½" square pieces, leave them on the cutting board to come to room temperature.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour and icing sugar. Add the room temperature butter tossing in the flour until covered.
- Squeeze the butter between the tips of your fingers and thumb working it into the flour and sugar.
- Once the pieces of butter are smaller you can use two knives to cut the butter until most of the mixture is fine crumbs. Stir in coconut.
- Pour the mixture into an 8” by 8”square pan lined with parchment paper. Spread the crumbs until they evenly coat the bottom of the pan.
- Use an offset spatula, the bottom of a measuring cup, or your hand to gently pat the crumbs down.
- Bake in a 350°F oven for 25 minutes until golden. Allow to cool slightly on a cooling rack.
Topping
- In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl or a large measuring cup beat the room temperature eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until pale, thick, and the volume has almost doubled.
- Gently beat in the juice and rind, then add the flour mixture until just incorporated.
- Pour over the base and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and set in the middle.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Once cooled sprinkle with icing sugar.
- Cut into squares, or if you want smaller pieces into triangles.
