Faithy’s Glazed Lemon Bars

HOWDY friends!!  Happy Monday!  I hope your weekend was as great as mine.  I actually got to sleep in a bit on Saturday (which is VERY unusual for me), then I was able to spend the morning baking, and playing with new recipes.  The afternoon/evening found us at a beautiful outdoor wedding, where the weather even cooperated (Thanks God!), for a very special night indeed.

Sunday brought sweet fellowship with Christian friends as we had a yummy potluck after church, and later a fun game night as well.  Good times with good people.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

Anyway…since I had a little time to bake, AND a potluck to prepare for, I thought I’d try this this recipe I found on Facebook recently.  The person who shared it did not credit the original source, so I’m not sure who to thank for this wonderful creation.  I Googled it, and found it posted on quite a few blog sites, etc., but still can’t quite figured out who came up with it.  Anyway…here’s one link to try to credit someone…I am definitely NOT taking credit for coming up with this…but I will share the small changes I made (as usual).

If you like lemony flavor, you’ll love this!  Give it a try and let me know what you think.  It goes together really fast, so if you’re looking for something decadent to put together in a hurry, this just may fit the bill!

Faithy’s Glazed Lemon Bars

Bars:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (this should be room temperature, NOT melted to a liquid form)

3/4 cup Whey Low - Type D (of course you can use regular sugar or your favorite sugar substitute)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (you can use all AP flour if you prefer)

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/8 teaspoon sea salt (or regular salt)

1/2 cup egg substitute (or 2 actual eggs)

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 Tablespoons lemon zest

Glaze:

4 Tablespoons lemon juice (this glaze is very lemony - just the way I like it! - but feel free to use less lemon juice if you don’t want yours quite so tart…you can also adjust the lemon zest to your preference…this will give you a great excuse to taste test the yumminess as you work!)

6 teaspoons lemon zest (the original recipe called for 8 teaspoons, but this was all I had, and it worked fine)

1 cup Whey Low Powder (or regular confectioner’s powdered sugar)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Spray an 8×8 inch baking dish with butter-flavored cooking spray and set aside.

Zest and juice 2-3 lemons (depending on size) and set aside.  (If you absolutely HAVE to use bottled lemon juice and dried lemon peel that’s fine…just let the dried lemon peel soak in the lemon juice for a few minutes - to reconstitute - before you add it to the batter.)

With a mixer, beat sugar and softened butter until combined.  Whisk together flours and salt in small bowl, then add to the sugar/butter mixture, and beat at medium speed until well mixed.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest just until combined, then add to the flour/sugar mixture and beat at medium speed (about 2 minutes or so) until light & fluffy.

Pour into baking dish and bake for about 25 minutes (or until the edges turn golden brown, and start to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Be sure not to over-bake, or the bars will be dry and hard instead of chewy!)

Allow to cool completely before glazing.  (This is the hard part!)

While the bars are baking, sift the powdered sugar and whisk together with the remaining lemon juice and zest.  (Let it stand to fully incorporate the luscious lemoniness while the bars are cooking.)

Spread the glaze over the cooled lemon bars with a small rubber spatula and let glaze set.  (Don’t worry…if you don’t let the bars cool long enough, the worst that will happen is that bars will absorb the glaze rather than keeping it just on top…and that’s NOT necessarily a bad thing!  LOL!)

Cut into bars and serve.  (I actually cut mine BEFORE I glazed them, so that the glaze could run down between them.)

Have a WONDERFUL week my friends…gotta run…

Blessings,

--Faithy