We’ve been on a bit of a Meyer Lemon kick lately. First we had the Meyer Lemon Margaritas and now we’re inundating everyone with a Meyer lemon bar recipe.
“What the hell?” you may ask. ”Are these bastards just out to torture the population still stuck in the snow?”
We can be a bit bratty, but the main reason behind all of the Meyer lemon recipes is that our tree is laden and we’ve let the fruit sit to the point where they are all starting to drop. As if that weren’t enough, we recently went to one of our favorite nurseries to pick up another citrus addition for the garden (another Moro blood orange) and there just happened to be a bunch of Meyer lemon trees heavy with fruit next to the blood oranges.
making meyer lemon curd
One from this tree, another from that tree, and soon our messenger bag was nestled with more golden culinary eggs to add to our heathy overabundance at home. Hey, doesn’t every $80 tree come with a handful of fruit of your choice?
We quickly paid for our blood orange tree and scampered to the truck with our ill-gotten goods. Score for team WORC. Now we needed to start cranking out some Meyer lemon recipes. It would be sacrilege to let any of this precious fruit go to waste. We do have morals, ya know.
Meyer lemon bars are one of our favorite uses for these delectable gems. We prefer to blind bake the crust then fill it with the still warm curd. A lot of times we will make this recipe with a shortbread crust or graham cracker crust (either crusts are excellent options), however this time we wanted to try this crust that was adapted from The Barefoot Contessa.
The end results are quite good. It is a nice crust to add to our repertoire and the curd is fantastic as always. You can use the curd to fill pies, serve in a glass with whipped cream, top some ice cream or whatever other uses your imagination can dream up. If you want to save the curd for another use, put it in a seal-able container the lay a piece of wax paper on top to help prevent a skin from forming.
-Todd
Meyer Lemon Bars
The crust is an adaptation from The Barefoot Contessa. The curd is an adaptation from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. You can make it will regular Eureka lemons as well, but it is by far the best with the meyer lemons. It’s still has a tartness, but it is also perfectly sweet, bright, and wonderfully lemony. Plus the curd isn’t as acidic with the Meyer Lemons which softens the tang. Makes a little over 2 cups.
Crust Ingredients
1/4 lb (225g) unsalted Butter, room temp.
1/4 c (55g) Sugar
1 c (150g) all-purpose Flour
1/8 t Sea Salt
Curd Ingredients
10 lrg egg yolks
1 1/4 c (240g) sugar
finely grated zest of 4 Meyer Lemons
3/4 c (180ml) fresh squeezed Meyer Lemon Juice (6-8 lemons)
1/2 t (3g) salt
13 T (200g) unsalted butter (cold-cut into small chunks)
Make the Crust
Butter an 8×12 baking dish.
1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy with a paddle attachment on the mixer. Combine the flour and salt, then with the mixer on low, slowly add to butter mix.
2. Mix just until combined, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a couple times. (The texture of the finished mix will vary depending on how warm your kitchen is. Cooler kitchen=crumbly texture Warmer kitchen=more dough like texture. Either way will be ok, just chill the dough a little longer after forming it into your baking dish if your kitchen is warm- see step 3)
3. Form dough mix into an even layer in buttered baking dish bringing dough 1/2″ up the sides of the dish. Chill 30 min.
Preheat oven to 350°F
4. Bake crust for 20-25 min. or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Make Meyer Lemon Curd & Finish
1. Combine egg yolks, sugar, meyer lemon zest and juice in a saucepan. Gently cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture evenly coats the back of a wooden spoon (12-15 min.)
2. Remove from heat. Add butter, just a couple pieces at a time, stirring until fully incorporated. Add salt to taste.
3. Strain through a fine mesh sieve then pour curd into finished crust. Place bars into refrigerator until fully chilled (at least 3 hours.)
4. Cut bars into desired squares or triangles. (Tip for clean, straight cuts – Mark the start (at the edge farthest from you) and finish point of your cut with the tip of the knife. Beginning at the top and slicing back towards you, focus on the finish mark and slice in a long smooth motion. Use your free hand to steady the dish to keep it from moving. Between each cut, rinse your knife with hot water and wipe clean. With a bit of repetition you will soon be able to make perfect straight cuts.)
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{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
first off I am totally jealous of all your meyer lemons! I need to get a tree asap! These bars look so tart and delicious! I would have to practice some serious self control if I were around these!
My brother has a Meyer lemon tree too, so I’ve had to come to terms with my deep seated jealousy of those who can pick lemons from their own trees. I can only imagine how wonderful it must be, sigh. I’m not a big dessert eater, but if I did make dessert, something that’s both sweet and tart would always be my choice, so the lemon bars look wonderful to me.
I am making lil`lkoi bars as we speak, from a recipe out of the Haliimaile General Store cookbook. If you guys don’t have this book you have got to see one. It is right up your line. Off to Big island on Monday so had to warm up a bit. These lemon bars lok pretty irresistible! Like the way your camera eye sees things.
We’re dying for our passionfruit to set. They were new plants last year and flowered a ton, but none of the flowers set. They were all supposed to be self-fertile, but even if they weren’t there were enough other pollinators around to help them fruit. Hopefully they just needed to mature a bit and this year they will take off!
Thanks for the cookbook recommendation.
Look, I don’t mean to repeat myself over and over again, but… I want Meyer lemons now! Please someone import them (or produce them) in Europe
(or send me some seeds and I’ll owe you forever).
But enough for the rambling! I hope I can taste this (apparently) simple, yet yummy recipe one day.
Is there a trick so the curd doesn’t drip, or is is it actually solid enough by itself as long as it’s cold?
The curd sets pretty well when it cools. You just have to make sure you cook it long enough. If you are unsure if it is coating the back of the spoon enough, cook it a bit longer. The cook time is approximate because it really depends on what your heat is at. It may take 5-10 minutes longer if you are cooking lower. It would be better to cook lower and slower than fast and quick for this curd.
What could be better than Meyer Lemon Bars? Well, Meyer Lemon Bars made from home grown lemons, and of course made by the two of you! Love the vibrant color…I can almost taste the goodness from San Diego.
How can you go wrong when your recipe is half Ina and half Martha?? You can’t. Lovely.
Oh you’ve totally hit a soft spot. Lemon bars! My mouth is watering. Seriously watering. These look unreal!
Wow, my secret wish for you guys to inundate me with Meyer lemon recipes has come true; thanks! Now I only need to find 274 more ways to use up my Meyer lemons!
Keep ‘em coming, okthxbai
Oh no! It’s 12:25am, the Snowpocalypse is raging outside my windows and my mouth is watering for Meyer Lemons! I guess I’ll just have to lick the screen while the 20 – 30 inches of snow blankets the landscape.
That has been my favorite term for the hammering you guys are getting. Don’t forget to wipe the screen dry and have some cocoa. Maybe with some rum!
I’m so glad to see this recipe, since I’ve got a Meyer lemon tree full of fruit as well! I’ve been trying to use them up, and I recently made a Martha Stewart recipe for Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake. I have a few suggestions to make it really pop at my latest post (http://wp.me/pI6Ms-bs), but it uses 9 – 10 lemons so it’s perfect for using them up. Although I’ve GOT to save a few for Meyer lemon margaritas!
The color is strikingly beautiful. I’ve heard a lot about Meyer lemons but until now I don’t now I haven’t tried them.
Oh, I am so jealous of your Meyer lemon tree! Lucky, lucky you! I am currently obsessed with them and just made a Meyer lemon sorbet and a Meyer lemon budino. I just may have to give these lemon bars a try!
By the way, I really enjoy your blog and all the great photography tips! It is so helpful, especially when I am only a few months into this blogging thing!
Thanks. Welcome to the crazy blog world. You’ll meet some incredible people.
I’ve got a bounty of Meyers in my kitchen! I’m thinking cake today, but these lemon bars look pretty droolworthy too
LOVE meyer lemons. Your pictures of the juiced lemons looks so rustic and natural, great shot.
I’m not a huge lemon bar/ lemon tart person, but these photos make me want to rethink that. I wonder what meyer lemons taste like.. have heard so much about it, but never experienced it first hand!
So refreshing and a delightfully happy picture to look at. I love lemons.
Just bought some Meyer lemons the other day and was wondering what I could do with them…lemon bars and margaritas coming up!
Oh, my gosh! How wonderful! Thank you for brightening my day (the weather is dreary, cold and damp where I am). I love lemon anything, and yellow is my favorite color. Your photo styling is stunning in its simplicity. I feel so much better now! Plus, I am sooo telling my husband we need to move to California instead of Chicago.
How perfect! I just found Meyer Lemons today (finally)! I can’t wait to make this!
Lemon bars are a real favorite of mine. I first made them from a cookbook I was given as a very young woman called The Artist in the Kitchen. I’ve tried some other recipes but none compare so I am very intrigued by your combination of multiple methods and the use of Meyer Lemons. Like many others, not a commodity typically found in CO so I’m sure, that even if I find them, they would not compare to yours…which look absolutely beautiful!
my life would be complete if i had a lovely meyer lemon tree in my backyard. especially one laden with so many gorgeous fruits!! i love lemon bars, especially with a coconut-y crust. stunning photos!
Lovely! The images (and the results, I’m sure!) are divine.
These bring back such nice memories of my grandparents! My grandfather was a citrus grower many years ago. Grandma made lemon bars very similar to these. Thank you for a wonderful post!
OMG. When clicking on my reader to see your recipe, it suddenly hit me : last night I dreamt of you guys! I was meeting you and we were having dinner… (yeah, that’s not too embarrassing of a dream, luckily!
we don’t have them in France…
This is it, you’re real stars, people you don’t even know have dream about you!!
Ok, i’m still a little embarrassed. Don’t worry, I won’t be stalking you. Well, except for these meyer lemon though
I am salivating looking at the pictures. These lemon bars reminds me of our next door neighbor in FLa few years back, they would always give us lemon bars whenever their lemon tree is laden with lemons and lemons galore. I could almost smell and taste the lemon bars through your pictures!
yes, if you must know, you make us very jealous. don’t you want to send me some lemons! I know no one with lemon trees here in Atlanta!
The bars are sexalicious! Orgasmic. Too damn good. My fave cookie growing up were lemon cookies. Things haven’t changed much!
Any new shoes to brag about, D?
These look amazing. Now I’m left trying to figure out what excuse I can come up with to make them!
you have no idea how envious i am of your meyer lemon tree!!! i dont get meyer lemons here and i have never tasted meyer lemon and it is just soooo sad. your meyer lemon bars loooks simply delicious!
You’re so lucky to have a tree! I found Meyer Lemons ONCE at Whole Foods and I haven’t seen them since :/ Beautiful picture.
Yes, we’re stuck in the snow (and the bitter cold, and the ice), but don’t let that stop you. I love Meyer lemons and these bars have my name written all over them. Besides, they remind me of warm, summer days…something I can definitely stand more of so keep the Meyer lemon recipes coming!
Oh my goodness these look so good! you have me thinking spring!
Anything lemony is perfect for me. I could sit down right now (6.50am) and eat two of those bars with a stong cup of Columbian coffee. Oops I just felt 2 inches go on my hips! Lovely recipe. Lovely blog!
When I saw the picture on Foodgawker, I clicked before I knew who’s it was. When your site opened, I was not amazed that it was you guys…….this is the kinda dessert I expect from this gorgeous site…..Yum!!!
Very nice checkerboard photo !
I just posted about how much I am dying to make something with Meyer Lemons this morning and then I see your post via FoodGawker! Snowpocalypse has turned into Snoverkill, so there are no trips to the grocery store in my future. I’ll have to keep up with your posts and pretend like your recipes are coming out of my kitchen…
These gorgeous photos almost made me jump up from my seat to the kitchen!!! I want these right now. Wow. I’m bookmarking this recipe. Thank you so very much for posting this.
Holy Hannah! These look amazing. I don’t think they have Meyer lemons in Japan, but maybe a yuzu version of these bars would be tasty?
Spectacular lemon curd! It tastes just as bright as the sun finally shining in my window. I used it in a shortbread tart. I can’t wait for it to firm up so I can taste the whole thing together (I already snuck a spoonful of the curd).
Since you are using homegrown lemons, would you like to enter this post in our Grow Your Own roundup this month? Full Details at
http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2010/02/announcing-grow-your-own-39.html
Can’t wait to try these bars!! They look so yummy and Costco has been selling Meyer lemons. Funny story to pass on that my 17 yo daughter took one to lunch thinking it was an orange and proceeded to eat the whole thing (one sour bite at a time) peeled and everything; even her lunch buddies were trying how sour her “orange” was!
We are lucky enough to have a neighbor with a Meyer Lemon tree and he graciously supplies us with all we need. Wonderful recipe; wonderful blog. If by chance you don’t have enough lemon bar recipes you can find a No-bake Lemon Bar Recipe at http://www.wineablegifts.com/Wineable-Gifts-Blog-Wine-Recipes.php Enjoy!
These sound amazing! Just wanted to let you know, I’m really enjoying your blog!
Hello, I just met your blog, and I’m thrilled with everything! These lemon bars looks delicious! Oh, I do not speak English, but use an online translator to monitor the blogs that enchants me! The photos are beautiful!!! Always be here for the news!
BEAUTIFUL blog! I’m so happy I stumbled upon it (thanks to your recommendation by Saveur!). You two are doing amazing things! You are an inspiration for me and my blog. Good luck with the nomination. Also, I can’t wait to make these meyer lemon bars!!!
I made these last night. OMG they are AMAZING!!