Meyer Lemon Shortbread Bars

By now you have probably seen a fair share of meyer lemon recipes.  It’s like meyer lemons are the new salted caramel lemon*.

Since I’m so picky when it comes to lemon desserts, I have to get really excited about an idea or recipe before trying it.  Well, it just so happens that a few months ago, I had an amazing lemon bar with a buttery crumb topping that I’ve wanted to replicate ever since.  It was moist and rich with the perfect balance of crumb topping to tangy lemon filling that just melted in your mouth.  Instead of playing with a regular crumb topping recipe, though, I thought I’d test out my favorite shortbread bar and swap out the filling for a meyer lemon layer instead.

The result- exactly as I had hoped.  If you like the flavor of meyer lemons and enjoy perfect buttery shortbread, you will love these.

Let’s be real, it is still a lemon.

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Bars
Serves 12

Shortbread Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2  cups granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Filling Ingredients:
2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon grated meyer lemon zest (1 to 2 lemons)
1/3 cup freshly squeezed meyer lemon juice (~ 1 lemon)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 325
Grease a 9-inch square baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and set aside
Sift flour; set aside
Beat butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy; mix in vanilla until will combined
Stir in flour just until combined
Press half of the dough in to prepared dish and bake for about 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown; shape remaining dough into a disk and wrap tightly with seran wrap; chill in refrigerator
When bottom layer is done, set aside to cool and prepare filling
Whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour; pour over crust
Bake crust and filling for 20-25 minutes or until filling is starting to set
Remove from oven and top with remaining dough but crumbling dough into pieces and distributing evenly over filling
Bake the bars for 20-25 minutes or until top of crumbs is golden brown
Store bars in refrigerator but are best brought to room temperature before serving

Shortbread recipe from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey; Filling adapted from Smitten Kitchen

On another note, I impulsively bought my meyer lemons at Costco.  Some of them were used in these bars and a couple of others went into a scallop marinade.  I still have quite a few left, what should I do with them?