20 Nilla Wafers, finely crushed (yes, I counted them out)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick, or 4 oz.) cold real butter
FILLING:
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese (you can use 1/3-less fat cream cheese)
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tbsp. lemon zest – (1 lemon yields about 1 Tbsp of zest -only use the yellow part, do not zest too deep)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice ( 2 lemons yield about ¼ cup of juice - depends how juicy the lemons are)
GARNISH: Powdered Sugar, Lemon Zest
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Line 8-inch square baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. (Tip: Foil will adhere nicely to your 8x8 pan if you splash a bit of water in the pan before placing the foil inside). Spray foil lightly with non-stick spray and set aside. (The foil isn’t too pretty, but it makes clean-up and cutting the bars a cinch!)
In a bowl, combine Nilla Wafer crumbs, 1/2 cup flour and the brown sugar. Chop butter into small pieces and then cut into crumb mixture with a pastry blender. If you don’t have a pastry blender, just use 2 knives, or even your fingers to break up the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of prepared pan.
Bake 15 min.
While crust is cooking, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.
Add 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp. flour, and ¼ tsp. baking powder; mix well.
Blend in 1 Tbsp. lemon zest, and ¼ cup lemon juice and then pour mixture over baked crust.
Bake 30 min. or until center is set. (Mine take 32 minutes). Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight. These bars improve with time.
Lift foil right out of the pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar and grated lemon peel/zest just before cutting into squares to serve. Store leftover squares in refrigerator. (As if you'll have leftovers!)
This made 35 bite-size squares.
No comments:
Post a Comment