College-Sanctioned Procrastibaking: R's Lemon Bar Cookies for His Freshman Writing Seminar

Last week, R announced that one of his professors had requested that they all bake something and bring it to the Zoom class meeting. Hmmm...something about 'procrastibaking', that is to say heading into the kitchen to bake something when you should be studying. Well, it was college-sanctioned procrastibaking, so okay. He wanted to make lemon squares and called my parents to see if he could raid their Meyer lemon tree.

Then he headed over there at 8 in the morning, baked, and had his plate of lemon squares ready for his class at 10:30am. Only one problem...

R: Mom, maybe I need to learn to read for my writing class.

C: What does that mean?

R: The directions were to procrastibake cookies. I missed that part.

C: Well, these are bar cookies!

R: Really?

C: Yep.

R: Oh, good.

After class, he commented, "Well, I wasn't the only one who didn't read the directions correctly. Other students brought brownies and other things shaped like that.

 Ingredients makes three 8" pans

Crust

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup organic powdered sugar
• 1-1/2 cup butter (3 sticks), cold and cubed
• 2 to 3 Tablespoons cold water
• 2 to 3 Tablespoons gin, vodka, or other spirit (or more water if you don't want to use alcohol he used Liquore Strega)
• zest from 2 organic Meyer lemons

Topping

• 8 eggs
• 2 cups organic granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• zest from 2 to 3 organic Meyer lemons
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• organic powdered sugar for serving

Procedure

Crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large mixing bowl, blend flour with the sugar and lemon zest. Add the butter cubes and use a pastry cutter to create chunks the size of small peas. Pour in cold water and alcohol, alternating 1 Tablespoon at a time. Press between each addition till the dough comes together in a ball. 

Press the dough into three 8" baking dishes; he used one square and two circles. Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. In the meantime, make the topping.

Topping

To make the lemon layer, whisk together the eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a bowl till smooth and combined.

Pour lemon mixture over the cooked base.

 Return the pans to the oven and bake for another 25 minutes. Leave to cool.

Before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Slice into squares.