Second-Stab Saturday: Harris Teeter lemon squares, correctly this time!

There is no logical reason for Harris Teeter to be on my mind.

Lemon Squares       Crust: 2 cups flour ⅔ cup powdered sugar 1 cup butter, softened Heat oven to 350°. Grease a 9"x13" pan.* (We recommend lining the pan with parchment paper or foil first.) Mix butter, flour, and sugar together until crumbly. Press into the pan and bake until light brown, about 18-20 minutes. Make the filling while the crust bakes.       Filling: 4 eggs 2 cups sugar ¼ cup flour ½ tsp baking powder ⅓ cup lemon juice† 2 tbsp powdered sugar Mix all dry ingredients except powdered sugar. Whisk in the eggs and beat well. Then stir in the lemon juice. Pour over the hot crust and bake until set, about 20 minutes. When cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar. You can make the powdered sugar look much nicer if you sprinkle it through a sifter. *The original recipe claims you can do this in an ungreased pan, but I have always had rotten luck with that. †If squeezing your own lemons instead of using juice from a bottle, grate off the rind and add that also. Note: If halving this recipe, use an 8" square pan or a 9" round. Source: Harris-Teeter powdered sugar label

The last time I made the lemon squares from the back of a bag of Harris Teeter powdered sugar, they were a goopy failure. And I know I didn't remove the previous batch from the oven too early because they were as brown on top as well-done toast. Here is a visual reminder:

That hot mess still pops into my mind to this day. 

Usually, the recipes on food labels are very thoroughly tested. (Apparently, some commercial test kitchens deliberately make the most likely cooking mistakes to ensure that people at home still get a passable result.) At the time, I figured that I must have made a mathematical error when halving the recipe. And so, I decided to actually write down the halved amounts this time. Furthermore, I did all my ingredient calculations and double-checked everything before even softening the butter.

Having ensured that our recipe was completely correct, we could proceed with the first part of it: the crust. Just like the previous time, we got a slightly crumbly shortbread dough. It's not very sweet, but I figure all the sugar in the filling makes up for that. Of course, this recipe uses far more butter than I've encountered in other pastries. We must remember that Harris Teeter is from the American South. The Midwest may be famous for its life-size butter sculptures, but southerners eat it instead.

Back when we first made this recipe, the crust baked perfectly. And it did the same today. 

Because the last lemon squares went wrong at the filling, I was afraid of once again feeding the trash can. A last-minute double verification of my recipe math did not make me feel better. Nevertheless, I whisked everything together and poured it out. Twenty minutes later, our lemon squares were baked and goop-free.

Although lemon squares had firmed up and set beautifully, they looked a bit pallid and underwhelming on top. This must be why Harris Teeter printed this particular recipe on the back of their powdered sugar bags. A quick sprinkle of white fairy dust made them look so pretty!

I love how they molded themselves exactly to the precautionary foil that I put in the pan.

Harris Teeter's lemon squares are almost as good as the lemon loves (and that is high praise). I think they'd be a lot better if you used fresh lemon juice in the filling (and also grated in the rind). The flavor would pop a lot better. Of course, using bottled lemon juice speeds up the recipe and eliminates the need to clean out a juicer. But whether you use pre-bottled lemon juice or squeeze it yourself, these lemon squares are really good. And if you don't mess up your amounts when halving or doubling the recipe, they will come out perfect.