Happy Valentine's Day! I'm going on book tour, yay!!

And a lemon bar recipe I can't stop thinking about

Hello hello! I’m going on book tour for Flirting Lessons! I’m going to a few cities I’ve never done an event in (and one city I’ve never been to at all), and I hope I get to meet as many of you as possible! I’ll be at:

The Strand, in New York City, on April 7th, in conversation with Tia Williams! The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn on April 8th, in conversation with Casey McQuiston! Loyalty Bookstores in Washington DC on April 9th in conversation with Nikki Payne! Loudmouth Books in Indianapolis on April 10th in conversation with Leah Johnson! The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, MO on April 11th, in conversation with Stephanie Skees! Reparations Club in Los Angeles on April 12th! Orinda Books in Orinda, CA on April 14th with Maggie Tokuda-Hall! Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, TX on April 15th! Grand Gesture Books in Portland OR on April 16th in conversation with Anita Kelly! And Barnes and Noble Northgate in Seattle on April 23rd with Jo Segura! I’ll also be at the LA Times Festival of Books April 26-27, and the Black Romance Festival in Atlanta, May 30-June 1!

Many of these events are ticketed, and I linked above to the ticket page. Do not worry, I’ll remind you about these events as we get closer to the date! As always, you can preorder signed copies of Flirting Lessons from any of these bookstores, and from my local indie bookstore East Bay Booksellers. They’ve reopened in a new location after their tragic fire, but the space is smaller, so we can’t do an event there this year. But they’re still handling all of my signed (and personalized if you want) preorders! (And you can also always order a signed and personalized copy of any of my books from them and I’ll head down there and sign it). I’m so so excited (and nervous, as always) for this book to come out, and I hope I get to meet as many of you as possible!

Here’s a little recipe for you to make for your Valentine (you can be your own Valentine if you want!). Do you ever make anything for a party or to give away and then realized it’s incredibly delicious and get furious that other people ate it all? That’s how I felt about the lemon bars that I made for a Super Bowl party last weekend. I love lemon bars (and lemon almost anything, honestly) but I didn’t have a go to recipe, so I looked at a few recipes and decided to go with the one that looked the easiest, and thought I’d try the others out later. Well, I’m not sure if I’ll get to the others, because I now have a go to lemon bar recipe. I made them almost exactly according to the recipe; the only change I made was to add some lemon zest into the dough for the shortbread crust. Sometimes lemon bars aren’t lemony enough for me, sometimes the lemon layer is too dense or too eggy or too runny — these are just right. The crust is delicious and buttery, the lemon layer is set but not too dense, and they’re very tangy and lemony. I might make another batch next week. The blog I got the recipe from, Love and Olive Oil (that is also the source of a favorite chocolate cake recipe, if you’d like a chocolate dessert this Valentine’s Day, and it’s just a single layer cake, so perfect for one or two), has notes in the recipe for what to do if you have regular lemons instead of Meyer, fyi!

Meyer Lemon Bars

For Shortbread Layer
1/4 cup or 30 g powdered sugar
1/2 cup or 113 g unsalted butter
1 cup or 125 g all purpose flour
pinch kosher salt
1/2 tsp lemon zest (optional)

For Lemon Layer
2 large eggs at room temp
1 egg yolk at room temp
1 cup or 200 g granulated sugar
1/3 cup or 80 g Meyer lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons or 15 g all purpose flour
powdered sugar to sift on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper (oil or butter the pan first so the paper sticks to the pan). In a food processor, mixing bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (I used my food processor) cream together the butter and powdered sugar until fluffy, then add the flour and salt and mix until it all just comes together. Put the dough into the baking pan and press it evenly in the pan with your fingers (the dough was pretty sticky; I floured my fingers and then pressed it into the pan and that worked well). Bake for 20 minutes until the edges are just brown.

While the shortbread is baking, combine the eggs, egg yolk and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer or a mixing bowl. Beat on medium until the mixture is lighter in color, about 2-3 minutes, depending on your mixer. Mix in the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, and then gently stir in the flour and baking powder until it’s just incorporated.

Take the shortbread out of the oven, pour the lemon mixture over the hot shortbread, then return the pan to the oven for 17-20 minutes, until the top is crackly and it’s just set (this took exactly 18 minutes for me). Remove from the oven and set on a rack to cool completely, or set on a rack to cool until just warm, and transfer to the fridge to cool all the way (I let mine cool in the fridge for a few hours, which made them fully set and easy to slice). Just before serving, sift powdered sugar over the top, and cut into 16-20 squares or triangles.

Enjoy! Have a great weekend, everyone!

xo

Jasmine