Bake It! Lemon Squares

I love baking. Baking requires a kind of concentration that you don't need for regular cooking and I love to totally immerse myself in a recipe - my own personal method of relaxation and meditation. I also love the end product, although apart from my post baking cake and cuppa I try and avoid my creations, unless the recipes are suitably virtuous and healthy.  As it is just myself and Mr M in the house I never have the opportunity to get baking as much as I want. This means that I will jump at whatever chance I may have to get baking - birthdays, exam passes, visitors - as I write this I have blondies cooling in the kitchen and a tray of brownies in the oven, for my friends hen weekend. So imagine the joy I felt when I read about Amy Lane's Bake It! club in her blog Cooking, Cakes and Children. Not only did signing up for this club give me a monthly excuse for getting baking but July's recipe for Lemon Squares were a perfect antidote to the dismal Scottish weather.

I have copied the instruction straight from the Cooking, Cakes and Children blog but as I don't have a food processor or pastry blender I made it the old fashioned way, I always find that there is something extremely therapeutic about rubbing the fat into the flour by hand. The recipe itself was easy to follow and the Lemon Squares were absolutely delicious. I am looking forward to trying the recipe again soon and am even contemplating substituting limes for the lemons to give it a bit of a twist. As for the Bake It! club I had a fantastic time with this months recipe and I can't wait for next months challenge!

Lemon Squares

(From Cooking Cakes and Children)

Base:

50g plain flour

75g icing sugar

175g butter, chilled and diced

pinch salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

2 unwaxed lemons

4 eggs

50g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

 icing sugar for dusting

• Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a baking tin, approx 24cm x 24cm x 4cm.
• Put the shortbread ingredients (flour, icing sugar, salt, butter and vanilla extract) into a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you don’t have a food processor you can rub the fat into the flour and sugar by hand or using a pastry blender.
• Tip the mixture into the baking tin and press down with a spoon and/or your hands.
•  Bake for around 15 minutes until a light golden colour, remove from the oven but leave the oven on.
•  Grate the lemon zest and squeeze out the juice. Put this in the food processor with the rest of the topping ingredients and blitz briefly to combine into a thin batter. Again, if you don’t have a food processor you could use a whisk.
•  Pour the mix over the base and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes, until the topping is just set.
•  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Then cut into squares and dust with icing sugar. This recipe will make about 20 squares.

These are not suitable for freezing but can be kept in an airtight container for 4 days.