Sometimes the best recipes result from accidents, and that's exactly what happened with Divine Lemon Bars.
Nancy at Tag Sale Tastes volunteered to make lemon bars for a church luncheon and realized she didn't have enough granulated sugar. Rather than stop everything and run to the store, she substituted powdered sugar and crossed her fingers. The result was a tart, smooth and slightly stiffer version of the usual lemon bars. Compared to some of the gloppy, gelatinous lemon bars she'd made in the past, these were far superior, and Nancy attributed that to the extra bit of cornstarch in the powdered sugar. Or maybe it was just divine intervention? But that's how the bars got their name.
If you try Nancy's recipe (which she noted, was adapted from Ina Garten's recipe), you'll notice it calls for 6 extra-large eggs. I don't always have extra-large eggs on hand, so what I did was use 6 large eggs and about 2 tablespoons, which translates to 3 large eggs and 1 tablespoon of egg if you plan to halve these and bake in an 8 inch pan. Also, Nancy used salted butter. If you use unsalted, make sure to add about ½ teaspoon of salt to the crust. If you're making half batch, add ¼ tsp.
So other than halving the recipe, adding a tad of salt to the crust and making up for the differences in large and extra-large egg, I followed Nancy's recipe. These might be my new favorite Lemon Bars.
Lisa @ Snappy Gourmet says
I never buy extra-large eggs either. I hate when recipes call for them. Maybe they use them a lot in commercial kitchens. These lemon bars look great!
Holiday Baker Man says
i have to use the lemons in my fridge up before I go on holidays.... I know what's on the menu this weekend.
Martha in KS says
I love "accidents" that turn out to be pure genius! Ina is one of my favorite tv cooks, but I wish she'd use large eggs, which is what everyone buys. I've never seen extra large eggs in the store.
Chewthefat says
Oh, just to add to the 'poll'--I always buy large, and if a recipe asks for extra large I usually just use large...
Sue says
These look perfect! I LOVE lemon bars!
I almost always buy large eggs. If I'm making an Ina recipe that calls for a lot of eggs and I happen to need eggs I'll buy extra large. Otherwise large fits the bill 99.9% of the time.
Paula B. says
Oh, experiencing a lot of lemon love lately and these will fit the bill. Just happen to have a bag of confectioner's sugar on hand, yay! As to the eggs, I usually buy extra large, not sure why... Thanks for the great recipe.
Anna says
I'm curious as to how many people buy extra-large eggs as opposed to just large eggs. Since most recipes call for large, I've always bought large. But I guess if I were making lots of scrambled or boiled eggs, I'd go for the bigger ones. Anyhow, these weren't runny at all, and they were very tart.
Chewthefat says
I love it! Given I once accidentally used powdered sugar when I shouldn't have in a recipe,and it turned out 'okay' and have experimented with using different types of sugars and such on many occasions...I love it when a recipe does certain 'naughty' things with the ingredients the cook has on hand and actually turns out better. And I hate runny lemon bars. Extra props for weird egg sizes and salted butter!