Lemon Slices

Lemon Slices
Makes about 24

Ingredients:
Base:
225g dairy-free spread
150g wholemeal flour
150g plain flour
50g icing sugar

Topping:
4 medium eggs
400g white sugar
4 tbsp white flour
120ml lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

Method:
Mix the base ingredients together in a bowl or food processor. It should make a dough-like ball. Press into the base of a greased or lined pan, about 32cm x 22cm and at least 3cm in depth. Use the flat of a large spoon or a spatula to ensure the mixture reaches the whole base, and flatten as much as possible. 

Bake in an oven set at 160C for 18-20 minutes; it should be turning golden but not brown. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a large bowl, with an electric mixer if possible, then gradually beat in the other topping ingredients. Carefully pour over the base, then return to the oven and cook for about 20 minutes. The top should feel firm to the touch when it's ready, and golden in colour. 

Cool in the pan, then refrigerate until needed. Cut into squares before serving. 

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I read about lemon slices - or squares - in a novel, and searched online for a recipe. I found hundreds of them, all roughly similar but with minor variations. Most had measurements in cups. So I converted the recipe to grams, chose the variations that suited us, used half wholewheat flour in the base, and experimented. 

For my first experiment I made 75% of the recipe which fit perfectly in a 25cm x 20cm pan.  Cutting the squares proved a bit messy, and the resultant squares did not look all that appetising. But they were extremely tasty! 

Lemons are widely available where I live, during the winter and spring, so this was an ideal dessert to make over Christmas. It proved so popular that I made it again, also in smaller quantity, a few weeks later.  When we were given a large crate of lemons, I froze several containers of the juice in the right quantity to make this through the rest of the year. 

More recently I tried the full recipe in a large takeaway pan, to take to a potluck meal. Once again, they slices didn't look all that wonderful, although I cut them and left them in the container to serve, but everyone who tried them were surprised at how good they tasted.  They are somewhat reminiscent of lemon meringue pie, but so much easier to make with the shortbread-style base and the all-in-one topping. 

If you eat dairy-products, you can, of course, use butter in the base, and if you don't have wholewheat flour, all white flour is fine.