Yesterday I wanted to make a dessert and the first thing I thought of was something with chocolate in it. Honestly, you know it has to be pretty dang hot for me to turn down chocolate. Well, here in the South the humidity is so high, you feel like you're melting because you can't help but perspire. Who am I kidding? I downright sweat. 

So, I thought Lemon Bars would be a good summertime dessert. I looked in my 1968 Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook for a recipe, but the only thing I found close was Lemon Crisp which really sounded good...and easy! The recipe was for a small square (8" x 8") pan, so I doubled the recipe and made a large rectangle (13" x 9") pan of it. Oh and one other thing, I didn't have lemon juice, but I did have lime juice so that's what I used!

For the crust:

1 stick plus 4 tablespoons of butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaked coconut
1 sleeve crushed saltine crackers

First, I turned the oven on 350 degrees and then I creamed the butter and brown sugar together. My mixer has a setting for creaming, so if you're using a hand mixer or your settings are different, you want to use a high setting or close to it.

As it was mixing, I scraped the sides of the bowl. I let it mix until it was light and fluffy.

Then I added the flour, baking soda, salt, crushed crackers and coconut. Some of you may not like coconut and you can leave it out. However, I thought it was important to tell you that this dish is not over powered by coconut. You know it's in there, but it's really the last thing you notice.


I mixed it up using a spoon, making sure that it was thoroughly combined. It looked like a crumbly mixture and I started to panic thinking it needed more liquid, but I kept on going and put half of it into the baking dish.


Just in case you're wondering, you don't need to grease the dish. I pressed the crumbs into the bottom of the dish. One end of the dish came up a little short so I scooped a couple more handfuls out of the bowl and pressed it in the dish making sure the whole bottom was covered with an even layer.


Then I put it in the oven and let it bake for 10 minutes. While it was baking I started on the filling. I want to go ahead and show you what the crust looked like after baking though. See how it puffed a little?


For the filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups cold water
4 egg yolks
1 cup lime or lemon juice

The recipe tells you to do this part a little different, but if you do it my way you end up with the same result and you won't have any cornstarch floaties or lumps. I put the sugar in a saucepan. Then I mixed the cornstarch and cold water together in a large glass measuring cup. If you don't have one, you can use a small bowl.


I poured that into the saucepan with the sugar and turned the burner on high. While it cooked, I stirred.


Once it started boiling, I stirred some more and let it boil for about 2 minutes. I started out with a metal whisk, but after a bit it got hot so I changed to a plastic whisk. Then I turned off the burner.


In a small bowl I beat 4 egg yolks together. I put the egg whites in a covered bowl in the fridge. I figure I can throw them in something I cook tomorrow.


I poured a little bit of the hot sugar mixture into the bowl with the yolks and stirred it together.


Then I stirred the egg mixture into the pan and turned the burner back on high.


I stirred some more just until it started to boil and then turned the burner off. Then I stirred in the lime juice.


I bet you think I'm going to turn the burner on again and boil and stir some more. Nope! Trust me, all the boiling and stirring definitely paid off.  Careful because it's hot, dip your finger in there and taste it. Well, when you're making it you have to taste it at this point. Yep, it's part of my recipe!

Next, I poured the filling on top of the crust.


The rest of the crumbly mixture got sprinkled on top.


Then I baked it in the oven for about 30 minutes.


You can serve it warm or cold. Either way it's great!