Lemon wedges on shortbread

Wanted to bring a little something to a party and realized I hadn't had lemon squares in a long while. Dug around for a recipe, and didn't see anything familiar, so I decided to try the one from The New Best Recipe Cookbook.

It was quite rich but very flavorful with good balance between the filling and the crust.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 Tbs butter (1 stick not too cold, not too soft)

The filling is quite rich:

• 9 yolks + 2 whites
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup lemons plus zest from 5 lemons 
• 4 Tbs butter (1/2 stick) 
• pinch of salt
• 3 Tbs Heavy Cream

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. 

Pulse dry crust ingredients in food processor. 

Cut butter into a few pieces and do 11-14 one-second pulses to form a fluffy flour texture. 

Place parchment paper in your pan (I used a springform).

Lightly oil the paper (recipe called for spray oil, I used a basting brush).

Press crust into bottom of the pan. 

Refrigerate for 20 minutes. 

For the filling: Put crust in the oven for 20 minutes.

Set a timer for 15 minutes, when you want to put the filling on the stove.

Whisk together the yolks and whites (5 seconds). 

Whisk in the (regular) sugar (5 seconds).

Add the lemon juice, zest and salt, whisk 5 seconds. 

    (The 5 lemons produced just a little over the 2/3 cup of juice needed.)

When there is 5 minutes left on the crust (i.e., 15 minutes have passed),

    Transfer to a medium non-reactive saucepan over medium-low heat. 

Add the butter.

Heat to 170 degrees on instant-read thermometer. 

Strain through fine mesh sieve into non-reactive bowl.

Stir in the cream.

Pour warm filling into warm pan over the crust. 

Continue to bake 10-15 minutes until shiny, opaque, and center 3 inches jiggles slightly when shaken. 

Cool on a rack 45 minutes. 

Dust with powdered sugar, if desired, before serving. 

As I was making it, I was unsure about the crust which seemed to be little more than flour. Fortunately, I pressed on and it turned out fine.

Observations:

When I was making the filling, I got a little too far into the process before I realized I hadn't put the crust into the oven. It wanted 20 minutes and I already had the filling on the heat, which only needed five minutes. So I turned off the heat and let the crust "catch up" and it all worked out. This kind of thing makes me nervous when I try a recipe the first time.

You'll see that I didn't use a square pan. I don't do much with square pans. I'm not sure I know where my square pan is. So I went with a round springform pan which worked like a charm.

Next Time: 

• I made it the night ahead, but I think I should have held off dusting with the powdered sugar until shortly before serving. The sugar turned into a syrup that, while tasty, lacked in visual presentation. At table we discussed drizzling with a little dark red syrup (pomegranate, blackberry, ...) for a little color. 
• I might experiment with more creative ways to cut the pieces. Maybe use a round cutter in the center and cut cords around the perimeter. The wedges were a little fragile on the points and if there are other deserts that people want to try cutting into 12ths produced pieces a little large. They would have been fine if it was the only desert choice.