DISASTER BAKING #15: Ultra Sunshine Lemon Bars (That Happen to Be Gluten- and Twitter-Free)
Dear Disaster Bakers,
In a column I used to write I liked to ask all the people I interviewed who made their lives possible. I had 20-ish standard questions, but this was a favorite.
Women would tell me about their mothers, who pitched in with child care three times a week. Their husbands, sisters, nannies. Friends who could be counted on to cover that random hour; the sitter was late! One woman cried when she explained how hard it had been to go back to work when her paid leave was up. If it weren't for her in-laws, who lived down the street—what would she have done? She would have had to quit.
The question wasn't about child care, but if a woman is a parent (which most of these women were) and the question is how does it all happen, what makes it doable, child care is bound to be part of the honest answer.
This week I made lemon bars—100 percent genuine sunshine, unfurled over sweet almond shortbread—while Elizabeth Warren unveiled her new child care plan. Her proposal would ensure universal child care in government-funded care centers nationwide. Now these lemon bars are superlative. Solar, even. Squares of pure zing, vim, sweetness. The punchiest lemon bars. Lemon bars to whip up on a cold, clear afternoon. Lemon bars with no cornstarch in the custard, no flour in the crust, and no Twitter presence whatsoever. But even these lemon bars are not a child care revolution. So Warren has me bested.
With her plan, families who earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line would send their children to care centers for free. Families who earn more than that would pay fees based on their salaries, capped at a maximum of 7 percent of their income. (Warren plans to fund the plan with her proposed wealth tax, which would be levied on those who make over $50 million and is summed up here.)
To put that in real-world terms: A household with four people—two parents, two kids—that made less than around $51,000 would spend $0 on child care. Zero! Nada. At the moment, the funds parents nationwide must set aside to send a child under five with no special needs to daycare for at least eight hours a week is over $8,000. In more expensive cities, that number close to doubles. In New York, for example, the annual cost of infant care can total more than $14,000—over $7,000 more than in-state tuition at public state universities.
This isn't one of those "women's issues." (What are "women's issues"?) Since 2000, the share of women at work has declined, in part because it doesn't make sense to some women to spend all their wages on partial, subpar child care. That doesn't just mean fewer women in fewer positions to contribute their ideas and smarts to the wider world. It also means less tax revenue. Fewer contributions to retirement funds. Fewer people eligible to contribute to our beleaguered Social Security and Medicare programs, which means less for all of us down the line. One report estimates that an increase in women's labor force participation could add as much as $210 billion to the U.S. GDP.
In an excellent Topic piece published this week, 15 people detailed what unexpected financial windfalls afforded them. The revenue poured in from all kinds of places: a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, insurance, investments, law suits, The Amazing Race. And the people spent it on tons of stuff. Education and retirement; the responsible stuff. Laptops. Homes. But more than one spent it on child care.
It doesn't have to be like this. Japan and Canada, for example, have invested in affordable child care programs to encourage women to head back to work and reaped the rewards. We know how to solve this problem, but instead we fret about price tags and paper work. "I am so tired of hearing what the richest country on the face of the earth just can't afford to do," Warren said at an event earlier this week.
Send this woman a lemon bar.
Solar Lemon Bars With an Almond Flour Crust
Servings: 12 bars, but can be cut into even smaller pieces for people who hate sunshine.
Distractability: 5
Scratchpad: One point for the use of a dough blender, which seems both terribly posh and violent. Like a weapon Nigella Lawson could wield and then sell on QVC. (I like this one.) Two points for the toasted marzipan-ish scent that conjures up visions of winter in some Nordic land. Two points for a curd that thickens on cue (the satisfaction!) and a flavor to jolt us all awake.
Notes: OK, I centaur'd this one.
For the base, I used a loose recipe from the King Arthur Flour website and just added lemon zest to draw out extra lemon flavor. For the custard, well, that was trickier. Most lemon bar recipes will mix lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, and eggs to be poured over a hot shortbread crust. Then the pan is returned to the oven to bake. The cornstarch is added to help the curd-ish mixture thicken. But I find it clouds the true lemon flavor, and who wants that? Plus, true, the hot oven breaks down most of the grit in granulated sugar, but the curd is never as smooth or fragrant as it can be when cooked on a stovetop first then baked.
I borrowed this custard-esque version from Stella Parks, whose BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts cookbook I love and treasure. She doesn't let us down. The extra step is worth it not just for a superb flavor, but because it more or less guarantees a perfect texture. Luscious. Thick. Smoother than the floors in Bethenny Frankel's apartment.
Also, please zest your lemons before you juice them.
Ingredients:
Base
2 cups (192 grams) almond flour
6 tablespoons (75 grams) sugar
3 tablespoons (24 grams) cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon (4 grams) lemon zest
6 tablespoons (84 grams) cold butter, diced
Custard
2 large eggs, cold
4 egg yolks (from 4 large eggs)
2/3 cup (132 grams) sugar
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon (4 grams) lemon zest
3/4 cup (155 grams) fresh-squeezed lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)
Powdered sugar (to finish)
To-Do List:
Preheat oven to 350F. Then grease an 8x8 square pan. Parchment paper would be a tremendous idea here, which occurred to me later. Be better than me: Line the pan with a piece of parchment paper that can hang over the pan's edges on two sides.
For the crust, combine almond flour, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and zest in a medium bowl. Add in butter (cold!), then use a dough blender or two hands (or a food processor) to cut in the butter in the dough until the mixture looks like little pebbles. Press into prepared pan in an even layer. Bake until bronzed and firm, about 25 minutes. For once in our lives, better to err on the side of caution and bake a few minutes extra. Like, for example, an infant, the custard needs a robust, albeit tender base in order to grow and thrive. Don't deprive it of that essential foundation!
For the custard, combine eggs, yolks, sugar, salt, and lemon-zest in a stainless steel saucepan. The stainless steel part is important. Aluminum is bad; don't use it! It'll give the custard a metallic-y taste. Most saucepans now are at least coated in stainless steel to avoid this precise reaction between acid and metal, but doesn't hurt to Google the pan to see what material it is. Its provenance thus settled, whisk the egg-sugar mixture together, then add lemon juice. Stir over low heat for about three minutes. Do not stop. Keep whisking.
Increase heat to medium low and stir until custard has thickened and become a little opaque, about 6 minutes. With an instant-read thermometer, the custard should register at 170F. Mine broke in an unfortunate tumble a few months ago, but perhaps yours is still intact.
Strain the custard over the prepared crust, smooth into an even layer, and cover with aluminum foil. This was when I realized, with seconds to spare, that I lost the strainer I'd planned to use. I tried to keep the lumpiest bits of custard in the pan, but in the end I just poured the whole gelled liquid over the crust and hoped it would all smooth out in the oven. It did.
Bake until smooth and firm, around 10 minutes. Remove foil and let cool at room temperature. Then cover with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate until cold and solid.
To serve, run a butter knife around the edges of the custard to loosen it from the sides of the pan. Use parchment to tug the bars free and move them to a counter. Cut into 12-16 squares. Dust with powdered sugar, serve. Store up to one week in an airtight container, which I like to leave in the fridge. Mmm, cold.
DistractiLinks
If our national 2020 "discourse" doesn't include a close read of this trailer, I am not interested. Charlize Theron is in the presidential race. Seth Rogen is her out-of-nowhere speech writer. Madness ensues!
I laughed so hard at this week's Who? Weekly podcast that a woman on the train snapped, "Put it on speaker or shut the fuck up." Which...I get. I did not put it on speaker, but I hope she knows I did include it in this week's newsletter.
Spindrift—maker of finest flavored seltzer; Dan Barber loves it—has unveiled its latest flavor. Lime! I've guzzled three in 36 hours, and I'm here to report it's delicious. BevNET.com, which seems like a great publication, wrote about it here.
Tucker Carlson went more insane than usual and told a guest to go fuck himself. Then someone released tape of the meltdown that Fox didn't want to air. What an utter delight.
Fork Over That Dough
Like Warren's child care proposal? Sure does help to have women who have dealt with some of the problems that wrecked America in office, doesn't it? Elect more people who are not hopelessly out of touch with our nation's issues! I like EMILY's List, which focuses on pro-choice Democratic women, and Run for Something, which helps millennials launch campaigns. Maybe if we all give a few dollars, we'll still have a planet in 2034.
Oh, And
The good people at Clover Letter interviewed me for their newsletter about this newsletter. I'm that girl.
As usual, send recommendations, requests, secret crushes, celeb gossip, and crises to disasterbaking@gmail.com or via DM to @disaster.baking on Instagram.