Happy Monday everybody!! I’ve been MIA for about a week. I’m in Lima-Peru right now (I know…again… I was just here less than 2 months ago…) because my dad had a bad episode a week ago and I felt that the right thing to do was to travel and be with my parents. Dad is 82 and his health has not been very good lately. He suffers from depression and his body is losing strength little by little. Last week, my brother found him in pretty bad shape and had to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital, he got a pretty bad skin infection and he had to stay at the hospital for 5 days. Thing is that he really needs proper care or the healing process won’t be successful and the only people around who can help, really can’t because my mom has a short term memory issue, my oldest brother is never around (he doesn’t really care) , my brother who is always around does what he can but he can’t be his full time caregiver and I live in California with my husband. So, because of all of this, dad needs a person who comes everyday to help him in the stuff that he can’t do by himself, so here we are trying to figure out the whole situation and I’m pretty tired (emotionally and physically).

My husband has been very supportive about all of this, I am very grateful that he is ok with me traveling so much because you know … traveling so far isn’t cheap plus time and plans we could have, have to be put aside for a while…but life is life and sometimes is hard!

You know I love my baking and blogging so I will try to not stop doing it while I’m in Peru.

So … enough with my issues (but we all know we have some…) and let’s start with the recipe!!

Ingredients:

For the crust

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

pinch of salt

For the filling

2 eggs, large

3/4 cup white granulated sugar

2 teaspoons lemon zest

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 cup plus one tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1.- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 8×8-inch baking pan, line with parchment paper and butter the parchment paper. Set aside.

2-.To make the crust, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream butter for 2 minutes. Add sugar and mix until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add flour and salt , beat until all is well incorporated and it all forms one dough.

Put the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes until just browned around the edges.

3.- To make the filling: In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until well combined and slightly thick. Add the flour, lemon juice, and zest and whisk until blended.

4.- Pour the filling over the baked crust. Return to the oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned top and set in the middle.

5.-Allow to cool completely in the pan and put it in the fridge for at least an hour before cutting. Slice lemon bars into nine squares and remove from the parchment paper. Just before serving, generously sprinkle each lemon bar square with granulated sugar. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar until golden brown. Allow a few minutes for the sugar to harden a bit before serving.

Enjoy!