Slice of nice

Wee bit well-done on the sides

(Trying out instagram here) These badboys are lemon squares and they're pretty good. I cut little hearts out of paper and placed them on top of the squares before I dusted with icing sugar, then I realised that the icing sugar just dissolves so don't bother! Here's the recipe:

Layer One

• 185g plain flour
• 60g icing sugar
• 180g unsalted butter (chopped into really little chunks)

Pre-heat oven to 150c (fan oven). Mix up all the ingredients and rub with your fingers until you've got bread crumbs, lightly press the crumbs into a greased-up square tin (preferably 20-30cm but you can work with what you've got of course!) and bake for 25 minutes. 

Layer Two

• 6 eggs beaten 
• 460g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest
• 250ml lemon juice (fresh or that bottled stuff, it doesn't really matter)
• 65g plain flour

Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and thick (this will take like 3-4 minutes if you have an electric whisk, and about a million years if you're old school and are doing it by hand). Whisk in the lemon zest and the juice, then tip in the flour and mix it all up, pour this mixture over layer one then bake in the oven for 25 minutes. After this get some tinfoil and cover the whole thing and bake for another 20 minutes - your kitchen will be smelling so good right now. When it's done let it cool before you get the whole thing out the tin, then you can slice them up and enjoy!

Super complicated honey-almond squares

Not going to lie, these took quite a bit of patience (which I do not have). The three layers have to be done separately but they were SO GOOD that I only got to try one out of the 16 that I made, they do not stay in the biscuit tin for long. Here's the recipe, they are definitely worth the trouble:

Layer One

• 215g plain flour
• 150g butter (chopped into really little chunks)
• 90g icing sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 170c (fan oven). Add the flour, butter and icing sugar into a bowl and rub the mixture into breadcrumbs (like you're making the topping to a crumble), then add the egg and vanilla to turn it into a dough. Don't over mix it because it will go tough, lightly press the dough evenly over the base of a greased-up square tin (preferably a 20x30cm one but you can just work with the resources you have!). Bake this for around 10-12 mins and let it cool slightly. 

Layer Two

• 125g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 30g plain flour
• 155g ground almonds 

Mix the butter and the sugar until it's really light (probably best to use an electric mixer but it doesn't really matter), then add the eggs one at a time, keep mixing while you do this. Tip in the flour and the ground almonds and fold it all up, then spread this gooey mixture over layer one. Bake this for a bit longer, 16-18 mins should do it - it will be quite firm when you prod it if it's done.

Layer Three

• 90g butter (chopped up)
• 80g caster sugar
• 2  tablespoons of honey
• 125g flaked almonds

This is the really fun bit. Shove all the ingredients into a pan and stir them all up over a low heat until everything melts and the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and boil the your sugary-almondy goodness until the mixture starts to go stiffer and come away from the side of the pan (this will take about 3-5 minutes, but you'll know what I mean when you see it). Tip this mixture over the top of layer two and spread it evenly with a palette knife - careful this is really hot and will burn so bad if you touch it. Now bake your creation for a further 10 minutes, leave it to cool then cut it into squares (small ones, they're quite sweet!).