This has been such a popular recipe for decades that is was featured, and probably still is, on heaps of café menus around the country. Now you can make it at home.
Ingredients
—225g (about 8 oz) unsalted butter, softened 70g (about 2½ oz) icing (confectioner’s) sugar 275g (about 9½ oz) plain flour 400g (about 14 oz) granulated (regular white) sugar 4 medium (size 6) free-range eggs, beaten together 4 Tbsp standard flour 1 tsp baking powder Finely grated zest 2 lemons 90ml (about 3½ fl oz) lemon juice, strained Icing (confectioner’s) sugar for dusting
Method
—1 Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F). Put the softened butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until whipped, then add the icing sugar and process until light in colour (creamed). Sprinkle the flour over and process until the mixture starts to form a ball. Tip into a non-stick Swiss roll tin (jelly roll) tin 32 cm x 21 cm (13” x 8” approx.), with the bottom lined with baking (parchment) paper, and press flat. If the mixture is sticky, keep your fingers dusted with flour.
2 Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from oven. While the base is cooling, make the topping.
3 Tip the granulated sugar into the bowl of a food processor and pour in the eggs. Process for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, then sprinkle the flour and baking powder over, and add lemon zest and juice. Mix together with a large spoon.
4 Pour the mixture on top of the base (it will fill the tin), then return it to the oven and bake for a further 30-35 minutes, or until golden in colour and firmish to the touch. Cool in the tin, then dust with icing sugar and cut into squares. Transfer to an airtight container when cool.
Recipe Notes
This super-delectable, sweet-but-tart ‘slice’ is quickly made in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, cream the butter and icing sugar and work in the flour. For the topping, whip the sugar and eggs together with a rotary beater. See Ilaria’s story on Sticky Lemon Slice
Is this like a lemon bar or is it more cakey?
It’s more like a bar – almost like shortbread – with a gooey lemony top wth a sugary edge.
Hope you like it.
Can I freeze the bar
Hi Ishbel, I’m not sure it will be successful because the top is so sticky. May I suggest you make a batch and freeze a few slices – they would need to be frozen in one level on a tray – and see how they go.
Nice but lemon didn’t come through very strong. Wasn’t gooey at all….maybe overcooked a little but I did watch the clock! Base broke off quite a bit when I cut slices.
Hi Kathy. I wonder what sort of lemons you used? I see your email address is .au so I presume you are in Australia? In both New Zealand and Australia the most popular lemon tree to have in the garden, and they type sold at roadside stalls etc, is the Meyer lemon. It’s not a true lemon (it’s a hybrid) and doesn’t have the sharp acidity and real lemon flavour (it’s great for juicing and many other things) of, say, a Yen Ben, Lisbon, Eureka and other paler thin-skinned lemons. The slice can be a bit crumbly, and that depends on the type of flour used and how dry it is. Try it again cutting the flour back by 25g to 250g and with acidic lemons. It’s worth trying again to get it right. Good luck.
What do you mean by standard flour?
Hi Ros,
standard flour is plain flour. The other types are Hi or High Grade flour – used for puff pastry and fruit cakes – and Self-raising flour which has baking powder added.
Plain flour is used for all standard jobs like coating fish, making gravy etc, and for most cakes (unless Self-raising flour is specified). It gives cakes a tender crumb (High grade flour can make the crumb drier and tougher, and Self-raising can make cakes peak in the middle). I hope that helps. There is plenty more information on Shared Kitchen in the Cook’s Notes section (the Link is at the top of the Home Page). https://sharedkitchen.co.nz/category/cooksnotes/