ON THIS WEEK’S episode of Dinner SOS, check kitchen director and host Chris Morocco is joined by check kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin to debate how Kendra developed the proper recipe for lemon bars.
Growing this recipe for Foolproof Lemon Bars almost broke Kendra—there’s even videographic proof to show it. Each recipe that seems within the journal or on the Bon Appétit or Epicurious web sites has been developed, tasted, critiqued, and cross-tested (a closing check by somebody aside from the developer) in our check kitchen on the thirty fifth flooring of One World Commerce Heart. When it got here to creating a brand new lemon bar, Kendra, in typical style, didn’t make it simple for herself.
A lemon bar generally comprises numerous zest and juice, solidified in bar kind by one in all two means, as Chris explains. Some use a starch, like flour, in addition to eggs to thicken the lemon juice combination and trigger it to set when baked. It really works, however the outcomes are sometimes stodgy. Different strategies begin by making a lemon curd (lemon juice thickened solely with eggs over a double boiler on the stovetop), that’s then baked onto a ready crust, for a creamier, brighter, and extra delicate lemon layer.
Kendra’s purpose was to find out whether or not she may develop a recipe as simple as a stir-and-dump filling, however with all the very best qualities of a pre-cooked lemon curd. Kendra bumped into numerous points—the lemon filling operating beneath the crust (her lemon bars turned the wrong way up!), the sweetened condensed milk overpowering the lemon taste, or whisking an excessive amount of air into the lemon combination.
Pay attention now to listen to after making round a dozen trays of lemon bars how Kendra was lastly in a position to crack the code and obtain her good bar that’s stackable and has a sunny, golden lemon filling that doesn’t must be cooked twice.
