Glazed Lemon Brownies. What?

I don’t remember the first time “lemon brownies” appeared in a search for some other recipe and I said, “What?” But, since my favorite Mackintosh’s Toffee candy was a chocolate-covered lemon cream and since chocolate is so versatile in flavor combinations, it stuck in my baker’s brain. I made a brownie with multi-colored lemon cream frosting* and then left it at that.

Several months ago the thought of lemon brownies as a brownie reappeared and I did a recipe search, found several and decided to give it a try and adapt my own recipe. First, the lemon. Then, the lime. Then, an orange with a dark chocolate ganache so I called it Orange Jaffa Cake Bars when I passed them out in the ‘hood. They’re all beautifully citrus and tested well. I even mailed a full batch of the lemon and lavender version — in the pan! — to my cousin in Idaho for her birthday last fall.

I spoil essential workers! These lemon brownies will be enjoyed at UWMC Physical Therapy.

I’ve made the lemon brownies a few times and realized last night that there wasn’t a write-up on the blog and no photo in my Instagram of any but the Orange Jaffa Cake Bars, so this post remedies the overlook. I made them today for my physical therapy team, my drivers and a couple new fans at the storage facility.

Readers can perform their own search for recipes and choose from among the search results. The recipes are all similar and include room temperature butter and eggs, sugar, fresh lemon and zest, flour and salt. The reason they compare to (most) brownies: they are fudgy and dense because there is absolutely NO leavening in the recipes. They are taken out of the oven at the slightly-underbaked stage, left to finish baking in the pan as they cool before glazing with a simple mix of powdered sugar and lemon juice. The lemon flavor increases as they age a day or two.