Lemon Curd Bars for Wedding, Graduation, Anniversary Parties
My youngest daughter first fell in love with these lemon bars and began making them frequently, often when she needed a treat for lunch potlucks when she worked for United Bank.
When our second daughter got married four years ago on June 4, we hosted a bridal tea/bachelorette party for the women in her bridal party on our front porch.
We had a grand time hauling out all the fancy tea party stuff. Doreen made these for the party while I made most of the other goodies.
Somehow the end of May has ended up being wedding and anniversary season in our family: we got married today, May 29 (see bottom photo); oldest daughter Michelle and her husband Brian celebrate on May 31, and Tanya and Jon on June 4.
Sisters Doreen, Michelle, Tanya; best buds Robin, Gina, and Edie.
My mouth puckers up just thinking of these lemon bars. Tart and sweet, all in one. Yum. These make a showy, rich addition to any celebratory party you’ve got going on: bridal, grad, anniversary or birthday.
The tricky part to this recipe (besides making sure you have on hand a bunch of eggs and lemons) is baking the bars until they are no longer runny inside, without overbaking.
Lemon Curd Bars
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk together in bowl
1 ½ cups flour
¼ cup powdered sugar
Pinch salt
Add ¾ cups (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.
Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut in the butter until the mixture is the size of small peas. Press the dough into the bottom and ¾ inch up the sides of an ungreased 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Bake until golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and reduce the oven temperature to a cooling rack; meanwhile reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees.
Whisk together in a large bowl until well combined:
6 large eggs
3 cups sugar
Stir in:
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 5-6 lemons)
Sift over the top of above mixture:
½ cup all-purpose flour
Stir until well blended and smooth
Pour the lemon/egg batter over the baked crust. Bake about 35 minutes, until the topping is set. Cool in the pan on a cooling rack.
Sift or sprinkle approximately ½ cup powdered sugar over cooled lemon bars. Cut into 18 3 x 2 inch bars, or smaller.
Adapted from Joy of Cooking.
Stuart and I enjoying our own wedding reception at Trinity Presbyterian Church, May 29, 1976.
findingharmonyblog 
I have always associated lemon curd with high English tea – tart and sweet together. It’s nice to see your lovely adaptations here. And you wore a white hat for your wedding – interesting!
Yes, Marian, it was supposed to be an outside “garden type” wedding but we had a rainy day instead. Rain is a sign of blessing at a wedding, don’t you think? Yes, English high tea was the idea!
I remember your wedding day at TPC! Lovely!
As I thumbed through a few pictures looking for one to share, I saw so many folks I had completely forgotten they were there! I had one photographer making sure he tried to get photos of everyone there. So many throwback pictures! I’m glad you were there and remember it well!
Hi Melodie
These squares look so good and although I have never made them myself, ,they often turn up at parties at the church or funeral lunches.
The lemon curd was a “specialty” in my own family when I was young, as my mother had an English background and I grew up with many English specialties.
We used to make the lemon curd and used it in pastry shells .
Christmas morning we had it on our toast fro breakfast.
I haven’t made it for a long time but may get ambitious one of these days and try it again
.
Funeral lunches, eh? That makes sense and I must say you yourself look like a proper English woman who would enjoy sitting down to tea with some English specialties. I’ll have to confess I didn’t know The “curd” part of the lemon bars seems to cast it into the field of English specialty, but perhaps my daughter knew that, as she spent a semester in Scotland, loved it and fell in love with the “spot of afternoon tea” so favored in the U.K. Nice to hear from you. On toast for breakfast–as a spread??