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Lemon Squares
Dena Kleiman, Susan Mahnke Peery
2029 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
2,029
1 hour
Updated Oct. 11, 2023
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Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter a 9- to 10-inch skillet, about 2 inches deep (preferably cast iron).
From the lemon, finely grate 2 teaspoons zest into the melted butter and set aside. Squeeze 1 tablespoon lemon juice into a medium bowl and add strawberries, ¼ cup granulated sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt; toss until the sugar has started to become syrupy, coating the berries. (Using a hand to toss here helps the sugar melt faster.) Set aside.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, remaining ½ cup granulated sugar and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix the milk into the melted butter. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients while stirring with a spatula or spoon until just combined. The batter will be thick but spreadable.
Transfer batter to the buttered skillet and spread in an even layer. Arrange the strawberries in the batter, cut sides down, pressing them slightly. Pour their syrup over the top, then carefully pour the boiling water over the top.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the cake is golden brown and a warm, pudding-like sauce has formed below the strawberries, 25 to 27 minutes.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar or serve with sweetened whipped cream, if desired. Serve warm. As the pudding cake sits, the pudding will eventually soak into the cake, so is best enjoyed sooner rather than later. (To reheat, heat at 300 degrees, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes.)
as strawberry season is over many places, if using frozen should they be thawed/drained or straight from freezer?
I have a raised bed full of raspberries. Can strawberries be substituted with raspberries?
So delicious and easy! I loved watching the cake rise above the bubbling liquid like some sort of pre-historic scene. I used a nine inch steel pan and it worked
Will this work with a non-dairy milk?
Hey there! Also a great question. This pudding cake loves loves loves high heat + air circulation. It makes the cake rise and brown quicker and even helps some of the strawberries stay firmly in the cake for some extra visual appeal. So, your counter-top oven convection fan should be good. If a skillet doesn't fit, you can use a glass baking dish. See the "tip" about this below step 5 :)
Followed the recipe exactly and it came out too salty. I love sweet and salty, but this was just too much, family concurred. I would reduce the salt probably by half if I make it again.
No - I've used cast iron skillets for most everything - it's also the pan of choice for great pineapple upside-down cakes (also acidic).
Hi! Can this be made with sour cherries instead of strawberries?
Hi mb! Great question. I recommend doing just (fully thawing and draining excess liquid) if you're going to try this with frozen fruit. I haven't tested it, but I would imagine frozen fruit would slow down the cooking process here and make this extra liquidy. :)
Hey Munson, that sounds so delicious. I haven't tested this, so I cannot say for sure. But, with any fruit substitution here I'd say you want to keep the sugar and water content in mind. E.g you may want to use more of the fruit if they're less watery than strawberries and if they are less sugary than strawberries you want toss with a little more sugar in step 1. Good luck! It sounds like a fun substitution.
Just made it and it is a good, easy, recipe. I did it just as is and baked it in a buttered, glass Pyrex at 400 F in a hot air oven for 20 minutes. The baking was perfect. Next time, I will make it with a bit less salt, it wasn’t salty, but almost. I will also reduced the boiled water from 300 ml to 250 ml as it was a too liquid.
Wow I wish I was your neighbor! This sounds delicious and I'm personally going to try this out in the next week! I think raspberries have a little water in them than strawberries, so my only recommendation is that you may want to add a few extra ounces to get the same amount of pudding layer as you would with strawberries :)
Such good questions in the notes! Here's mine: Can the cake be baked in a combo toaster/convection oven - air fryer/broiler? (My very old oven doesn't heat past 325.)
Regarding the substitution of rhubarb, I don’t see why you couldn’t. But I would slice it and macerate in 1/3 C. dark brown sugar for 15 minutes. Probably leave the resulting juice behind when adding to the batter.
This was delicious. Although I am genetically predisposed to change all recipes, I followed this one exactly. Oh who am I kidding. I didn’t have a lemon so I used lime and I had some spelt flour lying around so I subbed that for about 1/3 of the flour. Small changes. I’m sure the recipe as written would be equally as yummy.
I truly disliked this recipe. The flavors were just off. I’ll stick to strawberry spoon cake.
I made this recipe exactly as directed, except for using half the amount of salt it called for, and baked it in a cast iron pan. It was very good! I am not enough of a cook or baker to change a recipe. I was surprised at how much the strawberries baked down to be part of the pudding. Hardly any retained their shape or consistency. I served it with a little Cool Whip. My husband loved it.
Made this exactly as written except baked at 425F w/ convection. Came out perfect - crisp topping, tender crumb, gooey strawberries. This needs to be made right before eating. Even an hour later, it was less delightful.
Looks delicious? Can this be made with almond flour or any GF kind of flour?
Can I make this the night before? Bake ahead or put everything together in my glass dish and refrigerate overnight to bake next day?
Just made this with marionberries, and it was a triumph! The only alteration was a bit more sugar on the berries themselves. Made it in a 9-inch cast iron skillet using convection. Glad I put a layer of foil on rack below to catch the juices that overflowed. Will make again!
Phenomenal. Made according to recipe in a glass 9x9 pan in a convection oven as suggested in Tip. Served with vanilla ice cream.
Tasted delicious, looked hideous.
Just made this and it is just not right, followed recipe to a tee. Strawberry part had no flavor and the cake part was not enough. I’d try again doubling the cake part and probably also nearly a double the sugar in the strawberries. And I might reduce the boiling water as well.
Great Recipe. Will try other fruit as well.
Made this as written using convection oven. Crunchy top and firm strawberries. Delicious! Excited to try it next with strawberries and rhubarb.
Definitely too much water. It didn’t look right when I added it. Will reduce by 1/2 next time. “Pudding” didn’t set.
Very easy strawberry dessert when running out of time. It was delicious. I baked in a convection oven but felt that the 20 minutes mentioned for that method was not enough as the centre of the cake was still uncooked. I continued baking for an extra 10 minutes, it came out golden and perfect.
this ruled.
This was awful. The dough had too much salt and it wasn’t a crisp or a shortbread. It was not much of anything
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