What a gloomy day today. Shortly after breakfast, I decided to pull one of my three pieces of lawn furniture to the yard. The last time any of them saw sunlight was...2004? Been a long while! I love my lawn furniture and I love eating al fresco. However, judging by the fact that I dragged the beautiful wooden chair outside only to soak it in rain for hours on end, it's hard to say my way of showing love is a little misguided.
Hopefully I'll have better luck with weather the next time I unearth another piece of outdoor living.
These sunny cheery Lemon Thyme Crumb Square from Pioneer Woman is exactly the cure to lift the mood. When I first read the recipe, I bookmarked it right away. Puckery lemon bar is one of those things that I don't make often enough. Though every time that I do, I wish I had made more. My go to recipe is one from Rose Levy Beranbaum. It's buttery, it's tart, it's creamy. And it's so delicate that there's no hope of taking a batch to picnic. Ree's recipe is just as delicate, if not more so. The creamy runny filling of lemon spiked condensed milk look divine and the milky sweetness seems to be an interesting departure from my regular lemon bar. However, in the absence of any coagulating ingredient, no wonder it is recommended to be served chilled. I decided to use her recipe as a starting point to develop a sweet lemon bar suitable for picnics.
Lemon Thyme Crumb Squares
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
makes 40 bite-size servings (click for nutritional analysis)
Ingredients
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tsp of fresh thyme leaves
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup old-fashion rolled oats
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup of cold butter, cut into 8 pieces
Method
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir to combine lemon zest, lemon juice, condensed milk, thyme, and eggs. No need to get too enthusiastic. If you beat too much air into the filling, it'll later pouf up in the oven.
- To make the crumb topping by hand, toss together the remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl and cut/rub the cold butter until mixture resembles pea size pieces. If you want to make it faster, whip out your food processor. Throw flour, oats, sugar, salt, baking powder, and butter into the work bowl. Pause the blade a few times until mixture is crumbly.
- Press half of the crumb topping to the bottom of your prepared baking pan until it's flat and even. Spread the lemon filling over the first layer. Top with remaining crumb topping by sprinkling them over the filling.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden. Rest on wire rack until it's completely cooled.
- To cut the bars into perfectly neat portions, I like to do it as follow. Using the parchment paper, gently lift the bar from the pan to make sure it is loosen. Chill the whole thing in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Unmold from the pan and onto cutting board. Just cut and serve. It makes for a nice accompaniment for your afternoon tea.
- Store in airtight container for up to 3 days. Or take them out to picnic! It's always about picnics.
