By Misty I.

Are you an amateur or professional lemon bar eater? If you are a professional, you know that you should NEVER breathe in while taking a bite of a lemon bar. Why? The result will be the powdered sugar getting sucked into your throat and you’ll start coughing. Like, scary kine coughing that you can’t control! If you don’t know what I’m talking about consider yourself lucky. It only has to happen once for you to learn not to do it again. Professional lemon bar eaters also don’t get powdered sugar all over their clothes.

Here are a few hints so that your lemon blueberry bars look much more presentable than mine did in the pic above! #dontbelikemisty

1. Let the bars cool completely in the pan before trying to cut it. Don’t be impatient like me!
2. When sprinkling powdered sugar, use the finest sifter you own. Don’t be like me and get the good one wet while juicing the lemons. That’s an amateur move, right there!
3. Don’t skip the lemon zest. Yes, it’s that important. No, you can’t use that bottled lemon “juice” stuff.
4. If you prefer good old-fashioned lemon bars, skip the blueberries. The recipe will work.

Lemon Blueberry Bars (Click here to get the printable recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

Crust:

2 C. flour
2 T. sugar
2 T. powdered sugar
¾ C. butter, salted and ice cold

Filling:

2 C. sugar
½ C. flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
⅓ C. fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
Zest from 2 lemons
½ C. fresh blueberries, rinsed

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine crust ingredients and “cut” the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter is pea-sized (I use a food processor to do this by pulsing it a few times) and press into a 9”x13” inch pan.
3. Bake crust for 18 minutes. (the crust will look a little underdone)
4. While crust is baking, combine the filling ingredients in the food processor until well combined. I don’t wash the food processor between making crust and filling.
5. Pour the filling ingredients onto the hot crust and bake for 28-30 more minutes.
6. Cool and cut into the desired size.
7. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

That’s it, only easy!