July Secret Recipe Club: Hugs & Cookies's Lemony Lemon Bars

I joined a super-fun food blog hop this month, the Secret Recipe Club. This monthly food blog exchange is hosted by Amanda at the food blog Amanda's Cookin'. For this blog hop, each participant is assigned another participant's food blog to visit. You then select one recipe from the blog to cook and feature in a post on your blog. But? It's a secret: you don't know who has your blog, and vice versa...until it's time to post on the designated day and time. I had such fun doing this! 

My assigned blog for July is Hugs & Cookies. Boy, was it ever hard to select just one recipe to feature. Danielle is quite a baker, and her blog features tons of great cookies, pops, cakes, and other sweet treats to choose from! Ultimately, my love of lemon won out...I chose her Lemony Lemon Bars to bake for a special Sunday evening treat for Michael! These bars come together very quickly from simple kitchen staple items. I always have two or three lemons in my kitchen, so I didn't have to go to the store to buy a thing to whip up these delicious sweet-tart treats! 

Lemony Lemon Bars

from Hugs & Cookies

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 350. Combine 1.5 cups AP flour, 2/3 cup confectioners sugar, and 12 tbs. (1.5 sticks) softened butter in a mixing bowl Combine until cumbly...you can use a mixer, but I just used my hands. Pat the mixture evenly into a 9x13 non-stick pan, and bake for 20 minutes.

Step 2:  While the crust bakes, prepare the lemon filling. Add 4 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (approx. three small lemons), and 1/4 cup flour to a mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth. When the crust has baked for 20 minutes, remove from oven and pour the lemon filling on top. 

Step 3:  Bake the lemon squares for another 20 minutes, until the filling is set. Cool to room temperature (about 1.5 hours), then the lemon bars into squares. Danielle recommends storing these bars in the fridge. 

See how pretty these bars cut? The base doesn't crumble, and the filling sets up very nicely! I loved the flavor of these bars...they reminded me of a shortbread cookie topped with a nice lemon curd. Some lemon bars I've eaten in the past have been too sweet, but these pack a really nice lemon punch and just enough sweetness.

If you'd like to join the fun and take part in the Secret Recipe Club, all you have to do is visit Amanda's blog to sign up. I had such a great time reading through Danielle's great blog, and I absolutely adore these lemon bars. I ran out of powdered sugar making the cookie base, but Danielle suggests a dusting of powdered sugar on the finished lemon bars.