Lemon Slice

This is one of the baking treats that my Nan was famous for. I'm not sure where or whom she got the recipe from but they are delicious! We converted the imperial measurements to metric years ago and I've adapted the recipe so I'm able to use my food processor to make it.  Whenever I take these along to coffee mornings and Governors Meetings and they are enthusiastically devoured without fail.

Base

1¼ cups plain sifted flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

125 grams chilled butter

¼ cup caster sugar

grated rind of 1 lemon

Lemon topping

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup caster sugar

grated rind of 2 lemons

juice of 3 lemons (½ cup in total)

¼ cup sifted flour

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease and line a standard 20cm x 30cm Swiss roll tin.

Put the flour, baking powder, butter, sugar and lemon rind into a food processor and using the pulse setting process until the mixture forms soft beads of dough.  Tip into the prepared tin and press firmly into the base, I use a potato masher for this bit but you could use the back of a spoon instead.  You could roll a floured drinking glass or small rolling pin over the base once it's in the tin to make sure the surface is level and even if you like.

Bake the base in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden. You need to prepare the topping whilst the base is cooking.

To make the topping beat the eggs and caster sugar together until light and fluffy using an electric beater or your food processor. There's no need to clean the bowl inbetween making the base and topping. Once the eggs and sugar are nice fluffy you can gently fold in the grated lemon rind, lemon juice and flour.

Once the base is lightly golden, take it out of the oven and quickly pour the topping over the hot base.  The base needs to be really hot straight out of the oven when you pour the topping on it otherwise the topping will seep underneath the base and you'll end up with a nice pudding instead of an afternoon tea treat.

Once you've poured on the topping, quickly return the slice to the oven for a further 25 minutes or until the topping is spongy, golden and cooked.

Once it's done let it cool in the tin.  I usually dust it with icing sugar before I serve it. Also make sure you use a hot knife to cut it into squares otherwise it might stick.