The Ultimate Lemon Bar Recipe (NY Times vs Martha Stewart)

It’s nearly the summer season which means it’s time to indulge in some sweet lemon bars! When it comes to this classic dessert, there are a number of recipes so I decided to put two to the test. Let’s see how NY Times’ Sea Salt and Olive Oil Lemon Bars fare against Martha Stewart’s Creamy Lemon Squares.
#lemonbars #newyorktimes #marthastewart

Martha Stewart Recipe: https://www.marthastewart.com/337330/creamy-lemon-squares?printview
NY Times Recipe: http://www.bitesoutoflife.com/2015/03/18/lemon-bars-with-olive-oil-and-sea-salt/

Comfee Juice Machine:
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Features:
– Can put an entire apple in without cutting
– Operates as an ice cream maker
– Comes in a stylish mint green color

MUSIC: Music by MYSM – Look At Those Clouds – https://thmatc.co/?l=128F12FA
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/eatsbyrachel/

Hey guys it’s Rachel and in today’s video I’m going to be talking about two different kinds of lemon bars you guys responded really positively to the video that I made with three different kinds of chocolate chip cookies so I thought I would compare two different recipes for

Lemon bars and today I’m comparing New York Times cooking with Martha Stewart right off the bat looking at the two different recipes I noticed that the New York Times recipe requires a few more ingredients that you might not have at home you’re going to need like flaky sea

Salt olive oil sea salt things like that and that’s not something you’re going to need for the Martha Stewart recipe at all both recipes start out with something that’s incredibly important the lemon bar crust so we are going to go ahead and prepare the crusts for these two

Different recipes so for the shortbread crust from the New York Times recipe we are going to combine several ingredients so this includes our flour regular granulated sugar powdered sugar and then also lemon zest which is kind of an unusual twist for the crust I mean having lemon zest inside the

Lemon bar filling makes complete sense but this one is actually embedded in the crust as well so you’ll go ahead and cut in the butter until your flour sugar lemon zest and buttery mixture all kind of come together it’ll be pretty much like sand or dirt it’s very dry so don’t

Worry about adding any water to it you’ll notice that if you kind of stick your hand in and just like squeeze it’ll kind of come together just enough to make a shortbread crust so don’t try and add water or anything to this on the other hand the Martha Stewart makes her

Crust a little bit differently she actually uses an electric mixer and she beats together room-temperature butter with a little bit of sugar and salt until it’s kind of whipped up together and yeah if you think about it her crust is literally just butter and sugar so I

Don’t know if we can go wrong there either and once you’ve got the crust prepared for both recipes you’ll do the same exact thing you’ll scoop in your dough to your tin and press it down as compactly as you can so for the New York Times shortbread crust recipe we’re

Going to bake it off until it’s golden-brown about 30 to 35 minutes martha stewart’s recipes a little bit different right before we bake it off we’re going to use a fork and prick a bunch of little holes into the shortbread crust so that it doesn’t puff

Up or rise when it bakes but it’s the same thing we’re gonna bake it off and so that we just kind of pale golden brown color so when making lemon bars you know one of the core things that you need is a ton of lemon juice and just

Squeezing that lemon juice by hand can be such a pain in the butt so I’ve partnered with coffee in order to show you guys and teach you guys about one of their new products which is their juice masticator and it comes in this glorious mint green color which is

Super adorable but basically you can throw on fruits and veggies and it’ll like extract the juice and then spit out the pulp on the other end it works really well it’s super quiet I’ve had other juicers that are super lab so this one is actually quite you know quite

Quiet and blends in sort of seamlessly into your kitchen and also you cannot deny how cute the mint green color is oh and before you actually juice your lemons make sure you grab some that lemon zest and you only want the outer rind you don’t want to get that white

Bit because I’ll be a little bit bitter okay so now that we’ve got our lemon zest and our lemon juice courtesy of the conf you do sir extractor we are going to proceed with the lemon curd for the New York Times recipe you’re going to need a couple of ingredients in order to

Produce this lemon curd in a saucepan you’re going to go ahead and combine your lemon juice your egg yolks your eggs your cornstarch and your sea salts and don’t forget sugar and we’re going to whisk those ingredients together until you reach a boil and make sure that you reach a boil otherwise the

Cornstarch will activate and it won’t be like thick and curly and once your mixture has boiled go ahead and remove it from the heat and then add in your olive oil your butter and your lemon zest this is a unique addition you don’t normally see olive oil and lemon bars

But I think it adds a really nice depth of flavor for the Martha Stewart recipe it’s super simple to make the filling all you have to do is combine some sweetened condensed milk with your egg yolks and lemon juice and just whisk it together and you’re good to go

Well once your quest has reached that pale golden-brown state you’re gonna pull it out and then pour the filling on top of it and this is pretty universal across both recipes Now you’ll bake the filling until it’s set for the New York Times recipe this is about 10 to 15 minutes and for the Martha Stewart recipe this is about 20 to 25 minutes it’s a little bit longer I suspect this is because you’ve already kind of boiled the egg yolks in the

Lemon curd for the New York Times recipe whereas in the Martha Stewart recipe you’re just you know straight up using the egg yolks with the condensed milk so you need to cook them a little bit more in the oven and once the filling is set you’ll remove them from the oven and let

It cool down until it reaches room temperature I know this part is like super unbearable for me but you really gotta wait until it reaches room temp once it reaches room temp you got to pop it in the fridge for another two hours which is like another like such a

Painful part of this process but you know it’s necessary evil it’ll make it taste so much better and it’ll be a lot more set when you cut into it so with the New York Times recipe I got a little excited and I took it out of the fridge

About 30 minutes early so it’s not quite as sad as it could have been but you know I’m just gonna take it it still tasted great still looks decent so you know it’s a win And the very last step after you like kind of cut your bars and you’re ready to serve them is to dust them for the generous amount of powdered sugar and for the New York Times recipe they actually ask you to put on a little bit

Of flaky sea salt too so you know go ahead and sprinkle that on as well as the powdered sugar but for the Martha Stewart recipe you’re just good to go with simply powdered sugar And voila we are done with both recipes both New York Times and Martha Stewart I have them both here with me right now right off the bat if we’re gonna compare them you can definitely notice a difference in coloring so what the New York Times recipe right off the bat you

Can tell it’s just like deeper yellow color whereas the Martha Stewart recipe is more like a pale yellow kind of like ice cream almost like milk was mixed into it and the crust for both of these they’re they’re pretty thick I’m not gonna lie there there’s some thick boys

A couple of C’s in there but yeah I think right off the bat you notice that the aesthetic and the appearance of the Martha Stewart recipe it just looks more put together it looks very nice very well done very elegant and clean a lot more scent and it just looks more

Appetizing whereas the New York Times recipe maybe if I hadn’t let it set a little bit longer the bars would have looked a little bit better but you could tell that the the filling is a little bit softer and gooey and the crust is a little bit more crumbly as well so I

Have gotten to try both of these lemon bars and I actually interviewed some of my friends and family as well but I have a clear winner my household has a clear winner when it comes to these two recipes and that winner is the New York Times recipe why well the New York Times

Recipe is by far better in terms of flavor appearance-wise it’s really not that great but the flavor of the lemon bar itself the filling is a little bit more sour a little bit more complex with the olive oil and the flaky sea salt the crust is a little bit crumbly and not as

Strong I would say that Martha Stewart has a better crust on her lemon bar but the filling you just can’t beat a good feeling when it comes to lemon bars the Martha Stewart filling is a little bit sweeter just because it uses that sweetened condensed milk which is pretty

Heavy whereas the New York Times when it is a little bit more tart and more sour but I think when you add that powdered sugar on top anyway you kind of counteract any of that sourness so if you want a deeper sort of lemony flavor in your lemon bars definitely go for the

New York Times recipe all right thanks so much for watching this week’s video and until next week stay safe guys bye