Yearlong Song Challenge, Day 69: Sunny

Prompt: "A song involving a lemon"

Selected by Sunny

"Yellow"

Ken Nordine

Colors, 1966

On a vacation this winter, a friend said "did you know lemons are a made up fruit?" After laughing in his face for a while, we stopped to consider what he was saying.

Turns out, in a sense, he's right. Lemons are real and made up. "Made up" as in literally manmade, in the same way GMOs are made up, dog breeds are made up, and time is made up. Made up or not, I like 'em. 

Lemon bars (makes 12):

• preheat oven to 350F, grease and line 8x8 baking pan
• whisk 150g flour, 50g sugar, 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl. Stir in 8 tbsp melted butter until combined, then press soft dough into prepared baking pan. Retain bowl without washing it. Bake crust 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway, until golden brown
• whisk 200g sugar, 15g flour, 2 tsp cream tartar, 1/4 tsp salt in the now empty crust bowl. Whisk in 3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks until no streaks remain. Whisk in 2 tsp lemon zest and 2/3c lemon juice (4-5 lemons worth, don't use the bottle stuff). Transfer to saucepan and cook over medium heat until mixture reaches 160, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 4 tbsp butter. Strain through mesh sieve into bowl.
• Once crust is ready, pour filling into shortbread crust and shake to flatten out. Return to oven and bake 8-10 minutes, or until filling just barely shakes. Let cool completely, then cut into bars, and dust with powdered sugar.