I am going to tell a story that I hope won’t sound too whiny. To give a bit of perspective, I will say that Mom and Dad still live in the same house and town where I grew up and I was never accustomed to the idea of moving as a child. That being said…when I was just about 3 months pregnant with Bear our life was turned upside down because Mr. Kent received a job offer for his dream job. I had recently learned that there was something unusual in Bear’s ultrasound and I was just kind of generally a mess. In this mindset, the idea of moving across the state (again, I understand that this is not far compared to moves that so many pregnant women so courageously make) was repugnant to me and I was predisposed to dislike Spokane.
The idea was not improved upon when a huge snow storm left over 2 feet of snow shortly before we were to move. I grew up without much more than a token skiff of snow in the Seattle area, where the entire city grinds to a halt over 1 inch of snow, and I was expected to navigate snowy roads as an everyday occurrence? Maybe I still need to work through a couple of issues related to this move! 😊
At any rate, move we did, and I started to get to know my new city. It was hard to do with all of that residual snow, but I prefer an optimistic attitude over a negative one, so I gave it a shot. However, it was really only once the snow melted and the tulip leaves began poking out of my front yard’s garden bed that I felt very hopeful about it. And then the lilacs came into bloom. I absolutely love lilacs. I had a babysitter tell me once that the reason the flowers grow in v-shaped clumps was so that you could just put your nose between them and really enjoy their fragrance. Well, Spokane is the Lilac City! There are lilacs everywhere. I have a couple of shrubs in my garden and am working on getting more of them.
The only trouble with lilacs is that they are pretty ephemeral. They do not re-bloom, so you have to enjoy them while they are around. Knowing this, I was delighted when my brother-in-law recently published an article in Edible Inland Northwest about infusing lemonade with lilacs. That sounded lovely, and the thought of it spurred me on to think of lilac lemon bars. And, here they are! I hope that you enjoy them if you have a lilac bush in your garden. The bars are good without the lilac as well, just not quite as spring-special.
Lilac Lemon Bars
- ½ cup freshly picked lilac flowers (make sure they haven’t been treated with any sprays)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup sugar
Whisk together and place in the refrigerator overnight.
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup flour (add ½ teaspoon xanthan gum if using a gluten free blend w/o x gum)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat your oven to 350-degrees. Whisk your dry ingredients together. Rub the butter into them until the mixture resembles damp sand. Stir in the vanilla and press the mixture evenly into an 8-inch square pan. Bake this mixture for 20 minutes, until the edges are beginning to brown a bit.
- Lilac infused lemon juice
- 1 1/3 cup sugar
- 4 teaspoons cornstarch
- 3 eggs
Drain the lilacs out of the lemon juice. Make sure to press the juice out of the blossoms. Whisk sugar and cornstarch thoroughly into the lemon juice. After the cookie base comes out of the oven, whisk the eggs into the juice mixture. Pour the lemon mixture immediately over the crust and return this to the oven for 25 minutes, or until the center is just set.
Allow the lemon bars to cool thoroughly. Dust with powdered sugar prior to serving if desired.
