Sunday Sweets – Lemon-Ricotta Bars

This deliciously tangy Sunday Sweet’s recipe is brought to you by the marvellous Food 52. For those of you foodies/travellers/humanoids who have never come across Food 52 before, well, shame on you.

Food 52 is a beautiful online community where all passionate foodies and everyone in between can find wonderful recipes, but also share and vote on the best recipes. It’s got an abundance of every kind of recipe and is a great go-to website to find an idea for a fabulous dinner, cute tea party or just a warm, lovely home-cooked meal. So go check it out.  Pronto. Well, after you’ve read this post, of course.

These lemon-ricotta bars are just plain fantastic. Lemon lovers, this one is for you!

They’re very easy to make, however, cooking and refrigerating time doesn’t make them the quickest things to bake. But it doesn’t matter, who’s in a rush anyway? No one, that’s who! Technically not true, but wouldn’t the world be a better place if we weren’t always in a rush? The answer is yes.

Ingredients (makes 18, 2-inches squares)

For the Crust

• 1 3/4 cups plain flour
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch/flour
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 180g unsalted butter cut into pieces, slightly softened

For Lemon-Ricotta Filling

• 1 cup Ricotta, drained
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/3cups granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2/3 cup lemon juice from 3 to 4 lemons, strained
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Steps for Crust

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 180 degrees C (350 F).

2. Lightly butter a roughly 13×9 inch baking tray, and line with baking paper.

3. In a blender or with a paddle-beater, mix together the flour, sugar, cornflour, lemon and salt.

4. Add butter and blend until mixture is pale yellow and looks like coarse meal.

5. Sprinkle mixture into the pan and press firmly into an even layer of entire pan bottom.

6. Put in the fridge for 30 mins and then bake for 20 minutes until light golden brown

Steps for Filling 

1. Whisk ricotta, eggs, sugar and flour, then stir in lemon, juice and salt and blend well.

2. Reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees C (325 F).

3.Stir filling mixture before pouring evenly across the warmed crust.

4. Bake until filling is firm when lightly touched, approximately 30 mins.

5. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool to room temperature (at least 2 hours) Or put in the fridge to cool quicker.

6. Cut into bars (however big/small you like) and then lightly dust with caster sugar.

VERDICT

Such yummy, lemony goodness! Lemon = one of life’s greatest citruses. You can do pretty much anything with them. Make them a main ingredient, a drink, a dressing and many other great things that I can not think of at this point in time.

But lemon in lemon-ricotta bars are a godsend.

These lemon-ricotta bars are purely scrumptious. They’ve got a decadent amount of lemon (great for lemon lovers, not so great for everyone else!) However, if you like lemon but not a whole darn lot, you can just add less lemon zest/juice to the filling. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! (see what I did there?)

What’s amazing about these bars is the presence of lemon everywhere, even in the crust, which makes them all the more tasty and really fresh. The crust melts in your mouth and contrasts the almost spongey and creamy lemon-ricotta filling.

These bars are quite different all round, so if you want to whip up something interesting and wickedly yummy for friends coming over, or to take to a party, try them out!

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