Lemon Bars Eggless

Every month I look forward to the Baking Partner's Challenge. Through this group event, I have learnt and prepared many baked goodies which I would never have tried otherwise. This month the recipes were chosen by Suja of Kitchen Corner - Try it. I tried these Lemon Bars and they were amazing. I used the same recipe as suggested for the crust but made few changes to the filling to make it eggfree. Now this filling and crust can be easily adapted to make them Vegan too. 

What you'll need

Adapted from No Meat Athlete
and The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard

For the crust/base

1. All Purpose Flour – 1 ¼ cup
2. Confectioner’s Sugar – 2/3 cup
3. Butter – 1 ¼ stick/10 tbsp, Cold cut into cubes
4. Salt – a pinch

For the lemon filling/topping

1. Water – 1 1/3 cup
2. Agar Agar flakes – 3 tbsp
3. Sugar – 1 ¼ cup
4. Fresh Lemon Juice – 2/3  cup
5. Lemon Zest – 1 tbsp,/ finely grated
6. Yellow food color – few drops
7. Cornflour – 3 tbsp
8. Milk – ¼ cup

Method

To make the crust

1. Pre heat the oven to 325 F and position rack in the center.
2. Butter a 9 inch square baking tray and set aside.
3. In a wide bowl, take the flour, sugar, salt and mix well.
4. Add the butter and with the mixer, pulse 8 to 10 times , until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
5. Process until the mixture forms large clumps and hold together when pinched between two fingers. (around 15 to 20 seconds)
6. Srape the dough into the prepared tray and pat it into an even layer.
7. Prick the dough using a fork.
8. Bake the crust for 20 to 25 minutes till the edges become golden brown.
9. Cool on wire rack.

For the filling

1. While the crust is baking, prepare the filling.
2. Soak the china grass/agar agar in water for 15 minutes.
3. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and grate the zest. Keep ready.
4. Mix the cornflour with the lemon juice and keep ready.
5. After 15 minutes, place the china grass with the water on heat and heat it till the china grass has dissolved completely. Stir once in a while.
6. Once china grass is dissolved, add the sugar and the food color and heat till the sugar is dissolved.
7. Now add the lemon zest and the lemon juice conflour mixture. Mix using a whisk on medium to low heat.
8. The mixture will start thickening and becomes a saucy consistency. Remove from heat.
9. Pour over the prepared crust. Cool.
10. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over the bars with the help of sieve slice and serve.