Easy Lemon Brownies
If you’re looking for traditional lemon bars or a fluffy lemon cake, the lemonies are not it. They’re the lemon equivalent of moist, fudgy brownies with zero traces of cakiness. They’re tooth-sinkingly dense with subtle buttery undertones like blondies have.
After pouring the glaze over the warm bars right as they emerge from the oven, it sets up, seeps into the brownies, and makes them even moister, softer, and more lemony. With each bite of a lemonie, I wanted another. It’s the type of food that the more you have, the more you want. The boldly tart-yet-sweet element really kept me going back to straighten the rows.
And the texture is exactly what I want in bars. Dense, rich, moist, chewy, and thick enough to be so satisfying.
Between my row straightening and my family’s love for lemon things, the lemonies disappeared fast. The lemon brownies themselves are not super lemony, thanks to melted white chocolate that’s stirred into the batter, but the glaze is pretty zippy. If you want to dial back the overall lemon intensity of the dessert, halve the recipe for the glaze, and drizzle it on like this, rather than flooding the entire surface.
But with lemon desserts, I generally prefer bold lemon flavor, and nothing is every too lemony for my daughter. She picks lemons slices out of ice water and eats them as if they were orange slices. Pucker much.
And it goes without saying that you should use freshly squeeze lemon juice for this spring dessert. The bottled stuff doesn’t hold a candle to juice straight from a lemon!
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
For the Glaze
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1/3 cup lemon juice, or as necessary for consistency
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest, or to taste