LEMON BARS
Time: 65 minutes
Servings: 24 (depends how it is cut)
📷
CRUST
2 cups gluten-free flour
½ cup powdered sugar
1 cup salted sweet cream butter (cold)
FILLING
2 ¼ cup cane sugar
½ cup gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Zest of 3 lemons
¾ cup lemon juice (about 5 small lemons)
6 eggs
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the flour and powdered sugar in a bowl, then add the butter. Mix until the dough starts to form into a ball.
Spray the pan, then smush the dough on the bottom and edges of the pan.
Put the crust in the oven for 18-20 minutes. When the edges of the crust are golden, it’s ready.
While the crust is in the oven add the sugar, flour, and cornstarch in a bowl and mix.
Using a grater on the lemon skin, add the zest of 3 lemons.
Then add the lemon juice and eggs, and whisk.
Once the crust is done, pour the mixture over the crust. The crust does not need to cool.
Put the pan back in the oven at the same temperature for 24-28 minutes. The lemon bars are ready when the edges are firm and the middle can still jiggle.
Let the lemon bars cool and then put them in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
The Lemon
The sound of five fluffy australian shepherds barking hysterically filled the crisp night air. Beyond the steel gates that firmly stood around the perimeter of the white and sage doll-house-like mansion, cypress trees swayed as the eerie wind whistled through their branches. The shiny black escalade inhabited by two sets of parents travelled up the red brick driveway and disappeared into the mist that lightly drizzled from the dark clouds above.
Inside, I stared at my reflection in the glossy windowed cabinets of the wooden TV stand, displaying my tangled curly hair held up by a sparkly blue scrunchy in a short ponytail sitting on the top of my head. A bright yellow fleece sweatshirt swallowed my tiny frame and my giant brown eyes stared back at me through my messy bangs. In the background my two older sisters, thirteen-year-old Keeyana, and seven-year-old Hannah, and our family friends, Becky, Matt, and Greg Brodersen, all between the ages of twelve and sixteen, were lit up by the blue light of the TV screen that they were so intensely fixated on.
“Loser!” Matt’s low voice bellowed out of his tall slender frame as he punched a fist through the air.
“You suck!” Keeyana whined as she threw the purple Gamecube controller on the carpet.
“Rematch!” she demanded, flipping her brunette side bangs out of her eyes.
“You’re on!”
Hannah’s tiny face focussed on the screen displaying Super Smash Bros. Brawl so intensely that I thought her eyeballs were going to pop out of her head; whether that was for her own personal entertainment or Keeyana’s acceptance, I wasn’t sure. I on the other hand, was not very interested, partially due to the fact that I had the attention span of a goldfish. Becky, the oldest of the bunch, likely noticed my boredom or felt the same because she brought me upstairs to feed her pet mice. Her long legs moved significantly faster than my six-year-old stubs, and the hike up the white marble staircase that must have been as tall as Splash Mountain was not an easy task.
However, once we entered her room, the trek was worth it. On her white wooden desk sat a small cage inhabited by five white mice.
“Do you wanna hold one?” she asked moving her thin dirty blonde hair out of her eyes.
“Yes, please.” I held out my tiny hands, anxiously excited. The only white mice I had ever encountered were Bernard and Miss Bianca from The Rescuers, so I figured, even though they weren’t wearing little berets, these mice would be friendly.
Reaching into the cage, she grabbed a mouse and gently placed it in my hands. “Be careful, now.”
Its tiny red eyes glared at me, sharp buck teeth protruding under its whisker covered nose. It squirmed around and squeaked, which at the time made me giggle, until I was abruptly alerted that the mouse was not like Miss Bianca from The Rescuers when the tiny thing opened its snout of death and stuck its razor sharp teeth into the thin skin of my right index finger. I yelped, and threw the tiny creature at Becky, who was equally as startled. Quickly bringing my finger up to my eyes, which were starting to tear up, I observed the wound as a single drop of blood dripped onto the carpet.
Swiftly returning the mouse to its cage, Becky grabbed my hand to inspect the damage.
“Here, let’s go get you a bandaid.”
I followed her down the hallway, back down the Splash Mountain staircase, and into the kitchen. Our siblings were perched on tall stools next to the kitchen island, chatting about something that made Hannah’s eyes widen.
Greg looked over his shoulder, “Oh, perfect! We were just about to tell Hannah a story. Dana, I think you’ll wanna hear it too.”
I climbed onto another stool, while Becky went into the other room, probably to get a bandaid.
Matt started, “Alright, so we were just telling Hannah about the Lemon.”
A puzzled expression took over my face. “It’s a giant lemon that rolls into houses when parents leave their kids at home alone and kills the kids.”
Keeyana butted in, “the Lemon is immortal and super strong, and it can change its size, so it can sneak into any house.”
Greg continued, “the first killing happened before any of us were born, back in the early 1900s. The Lemon killed six kids, three from one family and three from another.”
My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Six kids, three from two different families, was the exact makeup of our two families at this very moment. Plus, our parents had left us home alone. My palms started to sweat and goosebumps popped out of my scrawny arms.
Greg walked over to the fridge as Matt went on, “it is believed that the kids were killed because they ate a food with lemon in it. If you eat food with lemon in it, this will offend the lemon.” His eyes glanced at my finger, “also, the Lemon can smell blood, like a shark. So that’s another thing that’ll make the Lemon come.”
“Good thing we don’t have any food with lemon in it,” Greg turned around in the open door, the bright light of the refrigerator behind him making his figure appear as a silhouette. He was holding a large platter of some square objects, and he grabbed one and took a big bite. Shutting the refrigerator door with his leg, the plate came into vision, revealing a stack of thick lemon squares. Hannah’s high-pitched voice screeched as he took another bite out of the lemony dessert.
“Greg! Those are lemon squares!” Matt screamed.
“Oh no!” Greg looked down with a startled look on his face.
A rock-sized lump formed in my throat, as my whole body trembled.
“Hey,” Keeyana smiled. “It’s a super old story. I bet the Lemon isn’t even around anymore.”
“Yeah,” Matt agreed, also smiling.
“Let’s just go watch a movie,” Becky suggested, seemingly irritated, as she entered the kitchen holding a Hello Kitty bandage. She put the bandaid on my finger, then took my hand, and walked us into the living room. We started watching The Incredibles, and after a while of staring at the characters’ bright red costumes, my goosebumps went down and my mind was at ease. My anxious body relaxed into the comfortable cushions of the white
couch, my feet dangling just above the hardwood floor.
All of a sudden a sound came from the kitchen, but I didn’t think much of it, probably because Edna Mode’s one-liners were hilariously distracting. Then, some round object rolled directly underneath my dainty foot. My eyes hesitantly glanced down to find a yellow ball sitting beneath my sock-covered sole.
“AHHHH!” I yelled leaping off of the couch.
Everyone’s heads shot in my direction. Hannah screamed at the top of her lungs, and both of us sprinted out of the living room, dispersing in different directions. I spotted the dining room table covered in a long white tablecloth and dove underneath it. As I attempted to conceal myself, I heard intense laughter from the other room. Immediately I thought I was going to die. The Lemon was laughing at me and was going to murder me at any moment. Trembling under the table in a squatting position that was starting to burn my quads, I attempted to slow down my heavy breathes.
The tablecloth started to lift from the ground, immediately causing me to shut my eyes as tightly as possible.
“Hey, it’s alright,” I heard Becky’s voice.
I peeked open one eye, to reveal Becky’s tall slender figure bent down to my level. The evil lemon was in her hand, which made me squeal.
“They were just being mean. The Lemon isn’t real.” She opened her hand to reveal a regular lemon.
For a minute, I stayed in my squatting position, shocked and embarrassed. However, eventually I crawled out from underneath the dining table and watched as Keeyana, Greg, and Matt scream-laughed, clutching onto their stomachs, bent over, with tears rolling down their faces. Even though I was ashamed of being so gullible and afraid, I was really just happy to be alive.
Inspired by:
Adam, Shay. “Gluten Free Lemon Squares Recipe.” What the Fork, Cravings Pro, 24 Mar.
2019, www.whattheforkfoodblog.com/2017/04/02/gluten-free-lemon-squares/.