Fresh Lemon Bars

I was coming back from my run this afternoon and I noticed that the large lemon tree in our backyard was plum FULL of lemons, all ready to be picked.  Now, we live in a historical monument home and with that lovely title comes a great deal of rules.  I am not sure if our landlord allows us to pick the lemons, but I don't see why not? I live here and pay rent, so a few lemons can't hurt.  That is until I find all these new recipes and go citrus crazy.  But, for the moment, I decided to make use of this monumental moment. 


I reached up and picked a few, then searched some of the best recipes for fresh lemons.  Chicken, cheesecake, what about lemon bars?  It does after all have the word "lemon" in it doesn't it? Here's an adapted recipe I found online to test out. 


Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup butter, softened
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 3/4 eggs
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 1/4 lemons, juiced

Now with my alterations (due to habits and ingredients in my reach):
- 2/3 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup splenda
- 1/ 1/3 cups wheat flour
- 2 3/4 egg whites
- 1 cup splenda
- 2 tbsp wheat flour
- 1 1/2 lemons, juiced (just to get the full delicious citrus flavor!)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 Degrees 

2. Mix butter, 2 cups flour, and 1/2 cup flour.  Make sure to soften the butter beforehand.  Of course the house seemed to have two hand mixers and 6-8 of the actual beater utensils, but none of them worked.  I ended up putting the butter in the microwave and warming it up to mix the batter.

 

3. Place the batter into an ungreased 9 x 13 pan 

4. Put the pan in the oven and let the crust bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.

5. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour.  Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. 

6. Once the crust has browned, take it out of the oven and pour the topping mix over the crust. 

7. Back into the oven the pan goes, this time for about 15-20 minutes.

8. Once finished, cut into uniform 2 inch squares and they are ready to serve!

Overall: It's definitely a different style mix, chewier texture (probably due to brown sugar, which seems to be a continuous theme & use of egg whites versus real eggs), but sweet tangy topping.  Perfect success.