Lemon-Lime Bars - Review

If you need a super-yummy dessert, these are fantastic. I was attracted to the picture in the Taste of Home magazine (they make things look so good!) and decided to try them. They. Are. So. Yummy. Really.

from tasteofhome.com

When I start most recipes, I do the painful stuff first. Like chopping the vegetables, grating the peels, etc. And I make sure to preheat the oven. Pretend like you are watching a cooking show where they say, "Look how easy this is!" and then they take ingredients that are magically cut or grated and measured, and they just dump, dump, dump - voila! They don't show the painful prep part. The part where you have a toddler screaming at your heels because they want you to pick them up, and you look down at them, look back at the huge knife in your hand, look back at them, back at the knife, back at them and say, "Um. I kinda need both hands right now. For like 10 minutes. And then I'm going to be using dangerous heating instruments....Baby Einstein video?" Yeah. They don't show that. Long sermon short: Grate your lemon peel first. But even before you do that, WASH your lemons with soap and water. You are putting peel into your food. Don't grate the pesticides in there with the peel. Always wash your fruits and veggies. And then cut/peel/dice/slice/grate whatever you need to do before you start your recipe. Then you can fly through the other techniques of the recipe without going "BAH! I need 2 MORE teaspoons of lemon peel. What next?!"

After you grate your lemon peel (it took me 1 normal-sized lemon's worth to get 4 tsp. - I had washed six lemons. Apparently I have no ability to gauge peel yield. If you budget 2 normal-sized lemons, you should be set), squeeze your lemon juice. It took me 3 lemons to get the 1/3 cup required. So that left me with 3 clean lemons....to put back into my fridge and wash again later when I'm using them for real. Haha!

If you have lemons, use lemons for the crust. Lime tastes great in the crust. Lemon tastes great in the crust. It's all the same.

As far as the crust goes, follow directions as listed, BUT when you get to the part where you are supposed to "press the crust into the pan" - don't use your fingers. Use the back of a measuring spoon. Or use slightly wet fingers. Otherwise you'll have a bit of a mess and find yourself washing your hands a few times before the crust is pressed. Margarine works just as well as butter.


The filling is straightforward. Mix and dump. When the lemon bars are nearly done, keep an eye on them. The longer they get "cooked", the "eggier" they taste to me. Unless you like eggy tasting lemon bars. I, of course, didn't follow my own advice as I got distracted with other things and had to smack myself in the head when the timer went off and the lemon bars were browned. They were still SOOOO melt-in-your-mouth good. That's a winner.

Family Rating: ****
My Rating: ****
Cost: $
Difficulty: Moderate. Mostly because it requires a "crust" step and a "filling" step. And peel grating and lemon squeezing. It's really not awful once you've worked through it, though.