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Sugar Cookie Bars
Margaux Laskey, “American Girl Cookies”
5447 ratings with an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars
5,447
40 minutes, plus cooling
Updated June 4, 2024
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Heat oven to 350 degrees and set a rack in the middle of the oven.
Place butter in a medium mixing bowl. Gradually add sugar as you mash the mixture with a wooden spoon until it looks like damp sand.
Mix egg yolks into sugar mixture, then beat in the flour. Add lemon zest and juice, then whisk in the milk.
In a separate clean large bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold whites by hand gently into batter.
Pour mixture into a 5-cup ceramic or glass baking dish (or Pyrex pie plate). Bake in the middle of the oven for about 40 minutes, or until mixture is just set and top is golden brown. (Alternatively, bake in individual ramekins or custard cups for about 20 minutes.)
Serve warm, dusted with confectioners’ sugar, with softly whipped cream alongside.
There is also a Turkish Yogurt Cake, made with 2 cups of Greek yogurt, juice and zest of 1 lemon, 3 tablespoons of flour, 4 separated eggs, egg whites whipped to soft peaks, no butter, and a half cup of sugar. Bake in a grease pan, 40 minutes. Just delicious.
Yes, this is very similar to the Joy of Cooking recipe, which is one of my all-time favorite desserts. I only make gluten free desserts and this turns out very well with either almond flour or a gluten-free flour. The recipe is also forgiving as to lemon-sugar ratios. I usually cut down on sugar in all my baking, by at least a third, so I often use Meyers lemons when they are in season, as they are less acidic. Whipped cream unnecessary, as the pudding has its own sauce.
This is very similar to The Joy of Cooking lemon sponge custard, one of my favorite all time desserts. I think you’d get a better separation of the pudding and cake if this was cooked in a water bath.
The lemon sponge custard was a favorite if my mother and grandmother at least back into the 50s, and it’s mine as well. A water bath helps, I agree. When served custard side up, try drizzling a not-sweet raspberry sauce on top. Lemon and raspberry—aaah.
I halved the sugar and used about a cup of lemon juice. Did the Dorie Greenspan “trick” of rubbing the zest into the sugar, before adding the butter. Baked in a large ceramic soufflé pan, buttered inside, with water bath. Very interesting! Glad I halved the sugar. Brown on top, but barely done in the center. Would make it again.
Would it be possible to make this with almond meal, matzo meal or matzo cake meal instead of flour? Or does the gluten from the flour contribute to the structure of the pudding?
Straight out of “Cooking for Two,” a spiral bound wedding gift cookbook in 1966, and one of the best easy desserts known to the young bride I was.
Ave a water bath gently bakes with the water acting as an insulator. Place the dish in which you have your preparation inside a larger dish containing water - a Pyrex baking dish is a good example. The water does not need to come up all the way to the sides of whatever you are baking, halfway is fine.You can either place your dish inside the larger one, pour water, and transport into your oven (carefully!), or place both inside the oven and pour water inside the larger container.
I make this using ramekins and a water bath. Put 6 six-oz ramekins into a 9 x13" baking dish. Ladle the batter into the ramekins (it will come almost to the top). Pour room temperature water into the pan to reach halfway up the ramekins. Carefully place in the oven and bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until the cakes are puffy and lightly golden on top. Using tongs, carefully remove the ramekins from the baking dish and let cool. Dust with powdered sugar and add berries.
This is extremely sweet. I like the idea and the textures were good but it was just too sweet.
So delicious! I added an extra egg yolk, juice and zest of 4 Meyer lemons, a pinch of salt, and reduced sugar by 1/4 cup. Perfection in 40 minutes.
I made this last night and my first question. what is a 5 cup dish? I couldn’t picture it. The suggestion to use a glass pie plate was useful. I googled the cup yield of a 9-inch pie plate and the answer was 4 cups. Hmm. I had several pie dishes—one that was deeper than the rest. This worked well enough and it came out ok. It was tasty. Juice of 2 lemons was also vague. 1/2 cup maybe? 1/4 cup? I juiced a very large lemon and one that was pretty small. It worked. I only zested one lemon
Agree this reminded me immediately of the Joy of Cooking recipe and a water bath would make a difference. That said this was delicious. I didn’t have lemons so I made it with blood oranges but otherwise followed the recipe. Will definitely make this again.
Is there a viable substitute for the flour so it can be gluten free? Thanks
After a rich dinner of boeuf Bourguignon I needed a light and easy to make dessert - this seemed to fit the bill to a T. I made it in individual portions in ramekins ( no water bath) using lemons from my tree and it was the perfect coda to dinner.
I've made this 3 times to rave reviews from my guests! Definitely a go to. And worth using the oven on a hot summer day.
Inspired by all the sugar-cutters in this forum and concerned by the amount of sugar in this particular recipe, last time I made this I reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup. While I thought the dish was still okay, my guests left theirs on their plate after eating a spoonful or two, which had never happened with the original recipe. Next time I will either make it as written, or make another dessert entirely.
This was just excellent. I served it with a raspberry coulis and a dollop of whipped cream. People went for seconds. I'll be doing it again.
Mine turned out ultra tart and the volume was less than I expected based on photo. Ah well.
Baked this one again today - it's an easy go-to recipe with flavorful, delicate layers. It's magical! Simple to make yet sophisticated enough as a dessert for special company. I really appreciate the ease of not needing to bake in a water bath. Because I live in the north, bags upon bags of lemons are purchased during the winter citrus season. Both juice and zest are frozen so we can enjoy this dessert year around.
Wow. This is delicious. My new favorite dessert! Subbed coconut cream for the whole milk. Added more zest. Plus all my eggs were weirdly double yokes (whooops - still used 3 because I wanted enough egg whites.) And it worked like a charm! Nice, and bright, and puddin' good!
Way too sweet!!!
We made it in ramekins. Nice texture and presentation. Way to sweet. I would reduce the sugar the next time.
This was lovely, easy to make, and really hit the spot on a cool rainy day--typical David Tanis and always dependable and reliable, elegant and sophisticated without being fussy and overly complicated--I always appreciate David Tanis' recipes.
Very lemony but had an odd consistency - not pudding like and kind of dry. Hmmm. Maybe will try again.
Reduced sugar by half, still delicious.
If you use the ramekins, it still took my oven a full 40 minutes for the cakes to set. Still delicious!
Made in ramekins as suggested but it still took the full 40 minutes to set up and they never did start browning. Still yummy.
This is a comment on the milk portion. The recipe calls for 1 cup (or 250ml) which is a contradiction according to every carton of whole milk I’ve seen, which say 1 cup = 240ml. After baking the prescribed time, the top was well browned but the pudding was a little runny. Next time I will use 240ml of milk and see if that helps.
Replaced the flour with potato starch (1 for 1 by weight) and it turned out fantastic. Did everything else as written. Definitely a great gluten free or kosher for Passover recipe. We made a 1.5x batch for a crowd of 9 and it was the perfect amount.
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