Lemon-Blueberry Squares

Hey all!  Hope you’re off to a good start this week!  I baked my heart out this weekend.  All for you beautiful people, I might add.  I guess we enjoyed the fruits of my labor, too.  I’ll be sharing all those recipes with you soon, so stay tuned!  Today's recipe was a "3rd time's a charm" situation.  

A few weekends ago, we got together with some friends for the stuff-your-face-event known as Pie Fest.  If you couldn't guess, we eat a lot of pie.  Not just sweet pies, but some great savory pies as well.  This year, I was on a quest to make a gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free pie.  So, in typical fashion, I did not experiment ahead of time with my pie, but was winging it on the day of the event.  It’s a safe environment for experimentation, thankfully.  Plus, I knew there would still be enough pie to go around if it was an utter failure.

About 20 minutes before we were set to leave, my pie filling hadn't quite set up yet.  Hmmm… guess I should have made it the day before.  Down to the wire, and not wanting to show up empty handed, I rushed down to the local pie shop and picked up a backup pie.  There may have been bad words used on the drive to the pie shop, and there may have been a couple of u-turns thrown in due to a mix up on what time the shop closed. 

When I got back home, miraculously, the pie filling had set!  I rushed to put on the finishing touches, and we were out the door with two pies.  My experiment pie was OK, but I wasn't going to settle with that. 

Take 2: No more pie, let’s try squares!  Back in the kitchen I went to hopefully get it right with my new tweaks to the recipe.  So close, but so messy!  Sigh...

Take 3: Seriously, if this didn't work, I was going to be done with baking for awhile…  I tried one more tweak.  Fingers crossed!

Well, lucky for us all, it worked!  Yay! 

Behold:  My labor of love.  The lemon-blueberry squares!

Lemon-Blueberry Squares

Prep: 40 minutes  Bake/Chill: 18 minutes/6 Hours

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup whole pecans

1 cup almond flour

1 egg

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

1 pinch salt

Lemon Filling:

2 ½ tsp gelatin (red label)

½ cup + 3 Tbsp water, divided

1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

½ cup honey

Zest from 1 lemon

6 egg yolks, whisked

Blueberry Top:

2 tsp gelatin (red label)

½ cup + 3 Tbsp water, divided

2 cups fresh blueberries

3 Tbsp maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Prepare a 9x9 baking dish by greasing lightly with coconut oil and cutting parchment paper to fit.  You’ll need extra up the sides to be able to pull the finished squares out when they’re done.
3. Add all the crust ingredients to a food processor and pulse until well combined.  Scrape down the sides halfway through.  It’s ok if there are some small pieces of pecans left.
4. Press the crust mixture evenly into the bottom of the baking dish.  Using a fork, poke several holes in the crust to keep it from bubbling up while baking.
5. Bake the crust in the oven for 15-18 minutes.  The crust should be golden brown when done.  Set aside to cool.
6. For the lemon filling, start by adding 3 Tbsp water to a small bowl.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and set aside.
7. In a medium saucepan, combine the lemon juice, remaining water, honey, and lemon zest over medium low heat.  Whisk constantly for 5-7 minutes, making sure to not let it boil.
8. Temper the egg yolks by adding half the warm lemon mixture to the yolks and whisk constantly. 
9. Add the tempered egg yolks to the saucepan and continue to heat for 7 minutes, whisking constantly.  The sauce will begin to thicken.
10. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the gelatin until it is thoroughly combined.
11. Strain the lemon mixture into a bowl and place in the fridge to cool for 20 minutes.
12. Once the mixture has cooled, pour it into the crust and place in the fridge for 3 hours, or until the lemon filling has set.
13. One more layer to go! Again, start with 3 Tbsp water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the water and set aside.
14. Combine blueberries, remaining water and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Allow the berries to open and release their juice.  Let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. 
15. Using a potato masher, mash the blueberries until most of them are no longer whole.
16. Add the gelatin to the blueberries and stir to thoroughly combine.
17. Place blueberry sauce in a bowl and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. 
18. Once the blueberry sauce is chilled, pour over the lemon filling, and continue to chill for 3 hours, or until the blueberry top has set.
19. Remove from the baking dish and cut into squares.  

Time to enjoy these yummy squares!