Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar
This baking cookbook is lovely and filled with instructional photos. It was a hard decision—what to make first? Lemon Blueberry Bars won. And it is indeed a winner. Next on my list: savory onion, herb & parmesan upside-down cake; a sweet creamsicle cake; and cranberry lollipops. And an adorable pink lemonade Eton mess. And chocolate pudding. And then, learning to make banofee crème brûlée. Sugar heaven.
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Excerpted with permission from Anna Olson’s Baking Wisdom: The Complete Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Make You a Better Baker (with 150+ Recipes) by Anna Olson Copyright © 2023 Olson Food Concepts Inc. Photography by Janis Nicolay. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
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Lemon Blueberry Bars
I love a pucker-worthy lemon bar, and the addition of fresh blueberries is a magical match for the creamy yet tart lemon filling. These bars can definitely be served in larger portions as a dessert.
MAKES: one 9-inch (23 cm) square pan (24 bars)
PREP TIME: 20 minutes, plus chilling
COOK TIME: 50 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Crust:
1½ cups (225 g) all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp (48 g) icing sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
½ tsp fine salt
½ cup (115 g) unsalted butter, cold
Filling:
1¼ cups (250 g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (37 g) all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp (15 mL) finely grated lemon zest
²/³ cup (160 mL) fresh lemon juice
¹/³ cup (80 mL) sour cream or Crème Fraîche
4 large eggs
¾ cup (95 g) fresh blueberries
Icing sugar, for dusting
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly grease a 9-inch (23 cm) square pan and line it with parchment paper so the paper comes up the sides.
2. Make the crust. Stir the flour, icing sugar, lemon zest and salt together in a mixing bowl. Use a box grater to grate in the cold butter and use a pastry cutter or your fingertips to work the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a fine, sandy mixture. Alternatively, you can pulse the butter into the flour using a food processor. Tip the crust mixture into the pan, and using the back of a spoon, press it into the bottom and up against the sides just a little. Bake the crust for about 20 minutes, until it begins to brown a bit at the edges.
3. While the crust bakes, prepare the filling. Whisk the sugar, flour and lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Whisk the lemon juice and sour cream (or crème fraîche) in a small bowl to combine, then add to the sugar, whisking well. Whisk in the eggs until smooth and evenly combined.
4. Pour the filling onto the hot crust. When the crust comes out of the oven, pour the filling over the still-hot crust.
I find that pouring the filling onto the hot crust starts to cook the filling immediately, which helps prevent it from leaking around the edges (a common issue with lemon bars) and softens the base ever so slightly so that, once cooled, the bars slice without crumbling.
Fresh blueberries are definitely preferred over frozen or dried in this recipe, to retain their shape and colour during baking. Of course, you can omit the blueberries for a classic plain lemon bar.
5. Bake the bar for 15 minutes and then sprinkle the blueberries overtop. Continue baking for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the filling is set when the pan is gently jiggled. If the filling rises up at the edges, turn down the oven temperature to 325°F (160°C). Cool in the pan on a rack and then chill for at least 4 hours before cutting into bars.
The bars will keep in an airtight container or loosely wrapped in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Crème Fraîche
Crème fraîche is a high-fat soured cream made from whipping cream. It has 30% fat content and milder flavour compared to regular full-fat sour cream, which is 14% fat content and tangy, makes it a great addition to raw desserts and for whipping. Crème fraîche is delicious served in place of clotted cream with Classic English Scones and jam, or alongside sweet desserts like Sticky Toffee Date Loaf.
MAKES: just under 1 cup (250 mL)
PREP TIME: under 5 minutes (make a day ahead), plus resting
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (250 mL) whipping cream
1 Tbsp (15 mL) buttermilk or fresh lemon juice
1. Sour the cream. Stir the cream and buttermilk (or lemon juice) together, place in a glass pitcher or bowl and cover. Set the pitcher into a larger bowl and fill the larger bowl with hot tap water up to the line of the cream. Let sit on the counter for 24 to 36 hours.
I find I get a tighter set to the crème fraîche using buttermilk, but don’t go and buy a large carton of buttermilk just for this 1 Tbsp (15 mL) when lemon juice also works.
2. Check and chill the crème fraîche. Lift the glass pitcher or bowl out of the water and look to see if there is liquid separated and sitting at the bottom. If not, let the pitcher sit out for another 12 hours (not in a water bath this time). Do not stir. Chill the pitcher for 3 hours, then spoon off the crème fraîche without stirring in the whey. Chill until ready to use.
You can discard the whey or use it in place of buttermilk in a recipe. Keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for no more than 2 to 3 days.
If you are making the crème fraîche in wintry, dry weather, it can take almost 2 days to sour compared with under 24 hours on a hot, humid summer day. The key is to not stir in the liquid that naturally separates—this way you’ll have a thick, rich crème fraîche after it has chilled.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge until the best-before date of the
whipping cream.
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