Me in the kitchen is like Oprah on a diet. I’ll go for it sometimes but it’s usually a disaster. Of course there are those rare occasions when we are both met with “aha moments” and reach our fullest potential, as intended by God. These lemon bars are one of those spiritual moments. They are real and they are created with only kind ingredients so that their birth would lead to an authentic awakening of gustatory joy accompanied by realization that a different path, the Vegan One, was available.

Ingredients-crust

1/2 cup fake butter. I always go for Earth’s Balance

1/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar (it’s POWDERED sugar. Why do all the cookbooks say confectioner’s? Get over yourself)

1 cup of flour

Ingredients-filling

1/2 cup silken tofu (I only had a hunk of regular and it was fine.)

1 cup of sugar

Zest from 2 lemons

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons-I actually used 1/2 cup because I wanted to.)

2 tablespoons of flour

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Confectioner’s  Powdered sugar for the top

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease an 8×8 pan and sprinkle a bit of flour on it

Get out a bowl and your blender. In one you’ll make the crust. In the other you’ll make the filling.

Crust in bowl

Use an electric mixer to cream the room temperature butter and powdered sugar. Add the flour until the dough comes together. If it doesn’t come together the way you thought it would, use your hands to mush it up. For realz. Then spread it on the bottom of the pan.

Filling  in blender

Put the hunk of tofu in a blender and blend it for a minute. It should be creamy. Add the sugar and blend. Now it should be nice and smooth. Now add the lemon zest, lemon juice, flour and cornstarch. Blend again. Pour it all over the crust and bake for about 20 minutes, maybe 19 to be safe.  Take it out, put it on a wire rack and let that bitch cool.

If you want to make them purty, wait until just before you serve them and put some powdered sugar on ’em. If you do it too soon it will just soak in.

I had never had a vegan lemon bar and wasn’t convinced they could be done. I thought they HAD to have eggs. Nope. Totally unnecessary. Baking without animal ingredients is super easy and produces desserts that would make the Gods weep with delight. These bad boys are a testament to that.

What do I know for sure? Oprah would eat them and rejoice in their delight.