Lemon Bars for Aimee's Birthday

&'s mother requested lemon squares for her birthday. I took the basic recipe and personalized it with cardamom, a spice that Aimee learned to enjoy in her coffee while living in Cairo.

Cardamom Lemon Bars

2 cups flour
1 cup powdered sugar
2 sticks butter, melted

4 eggs
1 tsp fresh-ground cardamom (about 12-15 cardamom pods)
2 cups sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
2 Tbsp lemon zest (or thereabouts; & zested the lemons so fine and fluffy, I just grabbed a couple big pinches of the stuff)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup flour

Powdered sugar for sprinkling

Prep:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish with the paper wrappers off your sticks of butter.

Shortbread:

Combine 2 cups flour, 1 cup powdered sugar and butter. Stir until doughy and press into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until edges are golden brown. Let cool.

Custard:

Smash cardamom pods in your mortar and pestle. Remove pod skins and grind seeds to a powder. Muddle in some of the sugar.

Crack eggs into a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and start whisking. Add cardamom sugar, then the rest of the sugar, whisking until light. Add lemon juice and zest, then flour and baking powder, whisking until combined. Pour mixture over cooled shortbread and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over the baked custard while still hot. It will caramelize and create a thin crisp layer on top of your finished lemon bars, so reserve more powdered sugar if you want a snowy-white layer on top of the final product.

Chill before cutting. These are best eaten with a fork, but if you want finger-food bars you could even freeze them.