Lemon Brownies

Lemon Brownies - made August 20, 2021 from Pies and Plots 

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Glaze

2 cups confectioners' sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, more as needed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8" pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and lemon zest until combined and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until just combined. Stir in the lemon juice.
3. Beat in flour and salt until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Poke holes into top of lemon brownies with a toothpick.
4. Prepare glaze: in a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add additional sugar or lemon juice until desired consistency is achieved. Spread glaze over warm brownies, coating top completely. Let cool before cutting and serving.

You might see more lemon recipes coming up shortly. I needed a lemon to make lemon bars for a friend so of course, I ended up buying a whole bag of them at Costco. I'm sure that made sense to me at the time but once those two seconds passed, I realized I'd better use up the lemons while I could. I hate baking ingredients going to waste.

As always when I have a plethora of a baking ingredient, I take advantage of it by trying new-to-me recipes that use up said ingredient. In this case, lemon brownies. You could conceivably call this lemon cake but it has the nice dense texture of a brownie so I'm going with that.

These were delicious. Kind of like a lemon pound cake but better. Bonus that they were easy to make, cut and serve from an 8 x 8-inch square baking pan. Plus I think they'll ship well in cooler months so I'm filing this recipe away to make for military care packages for Soldiers Angels this fall.

In the meantime, the other batch baking I do is for a group that feeds the local houseless population every week. One of the organizers is kind enough to pick up the baked goods from my house the afternoon before she does the meal distribution so it's extremely convenient for me to bake on the weekends, store these in my freezer for a couple of days then do the hand off. 

The big benefit to me is I can only eat the taste test piece then I give the rest away before I can indulge and eat the whole pan. Because these were so good that I could have.