with honey lemon curd and berry topping
I’m still on my paleo/low carb kick, and still trying to think up delicious recipes that don’t have me missing refined carbs and sugar too much. My next attempt, this time dessert, is Frozen Yogurt Lemon Bars with Almond Flour Crust made with honey lemon curd and a mixed berry topping. All of the memories of my time spent in Amalfi, Italy brought about by my Kale and Cannellini Bean Salad had me thinking about the gigantic lemons that are grown there. Amalfi is famous for its lemons and its limoncello, a sweet lemon liquor usually sipped on as an after-dinner drink – although in my family we guzzle it down more than we sip on it. I remember spending my 15th birthday in Amalfi; we hiked to the top of this huge hill to a hole-in-the-wall limoncello factory and tried every different kind of limoncello they had – which was a lot! Needless to say, it was one of the best birthdays I’ve had, even if I don’t remember it that well due to a slight alcohol-induced fogginess (no one there ever even asked for my ID!). And while limoncelllo is probably my favorite lemon product that comes out of Amalfi, there are countless others; lemon soap, lemon pasta, and of course lemon desserts.
I’ve been eating greek yogurt with lemon curd and berries as a delicious breakfast/snack/dessert for about a week now (if you haven’t ever tried this I definitely recommend it!) and, along with memories of the Amalfi lemons, I was inspired to try my hand at my own lemony dessert. In an attempt to cut back on the carbs that are ever-present in any dessert, I decided to make the filling for my lemon bars with Greek yogurt and lemon curd instead of solely lemon custard, which contains a lot of sugar. There’s just one problem: Greek yogurt does not set up the same way a custard would in a traditional lemon bar. And then I had the brilliant notion that I would freeze the filling to make the yogurt solidify, making this dessert land somewhere in between a pastry and an ice cream bar.
Then there was the problem of how I would sweeten my lemon curd while sticking by my relentless effort to cut refined sugar out of my diet. I decided to make lemon curd from scratch using honey instead of sugar, making the lemon curd a little lighter on the carbs, less processed, and also paelo. However if you don’t feel like making the lemon curd from scratch, by all means purchase it in the store; there are some really good ones out there. If you do decided to try your hand at my honey lemon curd I will give you one piece of advice: since I used honey instead of sugar and a lot of lemon juice and zest – especially because I used extra big lemons – it turned out pretty sour and lemony. I like very sour things (I eat lemons raw as a snack sometimes) so it was perfect for me, and it evens out well with the mostly bland greek yogurt. But if you are one of those people who’s lips pucker up like crazy with sourness, cut some of the lemon juice with a little bit of water, leave out some of the zest, and add a little bit more honey.
In the same effort that caused me to use honey instead of sugar, I decided to use almond flour – left over from my Almond Flour Pancakes recipe! – and rolled oats instead of regular white flour. Now don’t let this replacement fool you into thinking this crust is good for you – there’s still a lot of butter in it – but it is certainly better than the same crust made with white flour. With only a few minutes in the oven and then a good long time to cool, this crust became the perfect base for my Frozen Yogurt Lemon Bars. For my topping, I went with a quadruple-threat berry combination: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. The slight sourness of the blackberries and raspberries boost the already very sour lemons, while the blueberries and strawberries compliment it with their sweetness – they also happen to all come mixed together a bag from the freezer isle of my grocery store. While normally I would always use fresh berries, I have no problem using frozen for this dessert since they are going to get cooked down a bit and then re-frozen on top of the lemon bars anyway. Feel free to use whatever berries you have or like, fresh or frozen.
One other thing that I learned along the way while making these Frozen Yogurt Lemon Bars: part of the key to this dessert is to let the Greek yogurt strain through a cheese cloth before mixing it with the lemon curd, in an attempt to get rid of some of the excess liquid (even though Greek yogurt is already a strained version of regular yogurt). This will help both with keeping the crust nice and crunchy, and will also help with the texture of the yogurt – the excess liquid in the yogurt when frozen will form a crunchy ice crystal, and without that excess liquid your filling will be closer to the texture of an actual ice cream. But honestly if you don’t have the time for this step, don’t worry about it!
After scooping my honey lemon curd greek yogurt filling into my almond flour and rolled oats crust, I let it set up in the freezer for a few hours (I actually did this overnight). I wanted to leave a clean layer of berry topping, and by letting the yogurt freeze for a while it ensures that the berries won’t sink down into it when you spread them on top (although it would be just as delicious if they did so you can skip this part if you don’t have time). The berry topping doesn’t need as much time in the freezer since its not in a thick layer like the yogurt, so I popped my Frozen Yogurt Lemon Bars back into the freezer for just about 30 more minutes (but of course you can do this for much longer). While this dessert may seem complicated in that it has a few different components, its actually pretty easy and what takes the longest time of anything is just letting it freeze up. Don’t forget to keep the leftovers stored in the freezer so it the Frozen Yogurt Lemon Bars don’t get soggy! When you’re ready to eat, let the bars sit out for 20-30 minutes, just to take the chill off them, so they’re easy to cut and you don’t get brain freeze when you bite in!
- 4 lemons, juiced and zested
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 cup honey
- 6 tablespoons of butter, cut into pats
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks with honey, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Fill a pot with water a few inches up the sides and bring to a simmer. Place the mixing bowl with eggs, lemon and honey on top of simmering water, but be sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water (you are making a double boiler). Whisk mixture continuously until light yellow in color and thickened so it evenly coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Your mixture will be much thicker than what you started with, but still not that custard/lemon curd consistency; it will continue to thicken as it chills.
- Remove mixture from heat and whisk in butter one pat at a time until totally dissolved.
- Allow curd to cool before placing into air tight container or jar. Chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
- 1½ cups almond flour
- 1 cup rolled oats, toasted
- 6 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 4 cups greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup lemon curd (use more or less to your taste)
- 3 cups fresh or frozen berries of your choice
- 9x12 baking dish
- Preheat oven to 350.
- For the Greek yogurt and lemon curd filling: Allow Greek yogurt to strain through a cheese cloth (or ultra fine mesh strainer, thin kitchen towel, or coffee filter) for about 30 minutes to get rid of excess liquid (you can skip this part if you really don’t have time, but the texture won’t be as good). Add lemon curd to greek yogurt and mix well to combine.
- For the almond flour rolled oats crust: Melt butter. Combine butter, almond flour, oats, and honey in a mixing bowl and stir well (I use my hands for this part) until mixture becomes the consistency of wet sand. Scoop into greased baking dish and press down and into all corners to create an even layer of crust on the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before adding filling.
- For the berry topping: Add berries of choice to a medium sauce pan with a little bit of water. Allow berries to simmer for about 15 minutes until soft. Using the back of a fork, mash the berries until the topping is thickened like a jam. If it becomes too thick, add more water. Add honey or sugar to taste. Allow filling to cool completely.
- Assembly: Scoop Greek yogurt and lemon curd filling into cooled crust. Allow to freeze for a few hours. Spread berry filling on top of already frozen lemon bars and freeze for another 30 minutes.
- When removing from freezer, let Frozen Yogurt Lemon Bars sit for about 20-30 minutes before cutting and serving
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