Cooking For Engineers

[Barb]

[/b]The best lemon bars are made with fresh lemons instead of bottled lemon juice. It adds a fresher taste.

[Kim]

This is the first time I have ever made lemon bars. I must say your recipe is excellent and very easy to use. All I did was print out your graph and take it to the kitchen!! Wonderful! Thank You so much for this site. It has now became my favorite! Now off to try your praline Pecan recipe!

[bronzieBear]

i love lemon bars, but i don't have an oven.
this will be the first time i'll ever attempt to bake..
i'm about to try tour recipe using an oven toaster instead. hehehe.
any tips you might suggest?
thanks!

[Dr. Polkatronic]

Great recipe! The lemon bars were perfect except for one thing: the lemon curd tends to separate from the crust when served. Is there some trick to keep the lemon curd and the crust glued together?

[Guest]

1) your lemon bar recipe is the first I've seen that contains milk. What's the purpose of the milk?

2) I think the purpose of the flour is to bind the lemon curd and give the texture a more bar-like substance. When I change the flour proportion, I get different texture.

3) In my neighborhood, we have many lemon trees, but a high percentage are meyer lemons. I hate seeing my friend's lemons go to waste, so I'm collecting different lemon dishes. Meyers have a lot of taste, but a very different acid level (lower). In general, I need to up the wet lemon percentage, but with lemon bars I get wet bars. Any suggestions of meyer lemon lemon bars?

4) the best lemon bars, IMHO, have a crust on top. I think I get that by vigorously beating the eggs (Joy of Cooking specifically says "lightly beaten").

Your recipe cards are great. I would love if your descriptions included more "why" because, as an engineer, I always modify the recipe every time I make it. More "why" means I'm more likely to get a positive modification.

[guest]

Michael -- try the recipe from Joy of Cooking -- it's even easier than Baking Illustrated -- no need to make the curd ahead of time. The only modification I make is to reduce the number of eggs by one -- a little less eggy-tasting. BTW, made the garlic roasted potatoes tonight -- excellent!

[poorlittlekid]

Recipes cannot be copyrighted. This is due to the fact that there are only so many ways to make most things, and many recipes truly are passed down, and can't be claimed by one person. A cookbook is copyrighted, therefore you cannot scan it onto your computer and post it on your website, but you can post the recipe itself. Many recipes on popular websites are from copyrighted books and magazines.

[Dilbert]

>>Recipes cannot be copyrighted.

depends on what you call a "recipe"

actual real live courts - judges and dudes that count - have repeatedly ruled a list of ingredients & quantities cannot be copyrighted.

the descriptions of how to use the ingredients, make the dish, change our socks, whatever, can be copyrighted.

compilation can be copyrighted. a collection a many lists can be copyrighted as a work, but the individual lists & quantities remain uncopyrightable.

[Guest]

[guest]

I really love the box concept you did for the recipe instructions. Very very innovative and I will be replicating that for all my recipes I think!

I have a few questions about the recipe (I'm fairly new to baking) -
1) I'm assuming this is true, but just in case, can these bars be frozen easily?
2) If the recipe was being cut in half, would most of the ingredients (those with the largest portions), be simply cut in half?
3) Are there any substitutes you could do to this recipe to make it a bit healthier? For example, whole wheat flour, brown sugar...

Thanks!!
Erica

[Michael Chu]

[lovetobake]

I have been making lemon bars from a recipe very similar to Cook's Illustrated (from "Rose's Christmas Book") since 1991 and I freeze them them all the time without loss of quality (up to about 6 weeks). In fact, if I am not going to eat them in a day or 2, I always freeze them as that keeps the shortbread crisp. They defrost in a matter of minutes if they are cut small. However, I usually wait to sprinkle the powdered sugar until they are out of the freezer. Otherwise, it seems to be absorbed into the curd and I have to redo it anyway.

[Recipe Editor]

This recipe is also in Cook's illustrated "The Best Recipe" and that recipe is the EXACT SAME, with the exception of the amount of unsalted butter. The Best Recipe list the butter at 12 Tablespoons (or 1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter.

Both recipes are from the same company (Cooks Illustrated), so please double check your original recipe. It could be the reason one reviewer said the shortbread was not as buttery as he/she anticipated or was used to.

I edit and test recipes, write them as well...so I notice these things easily.

[Michael Chu]

[Chichef]

i love lemon bars and I loved the pictures are very intuitive. thank you

Santos