When I think of lemon bars, I think of the lemon bars served at the Sunday brunch at Duke's Malibu restaurant in Malibu, Ca. They had a buttery pastry base, with a slightly sweet but predominantly lemony tart lemon custard/lemon curd topping, with a light dusting of powdered sugar. These lemon bars are incredible, really truly incredible, and while you could eat them, with some care, with your fingers, brownie-style, I usually used a fork. The restaurant doesn't make them on site; they're provided by a local baker, so I have no idea of the recipe used. But dear sweet heaven—I love those lemon bars, and, no, I've never been able to completely duplicate them, despite diligent research, experimentation and multiple self-sacrifices in the form of many many trips to Duke's desert buffet.

But I've come awfully close to duplicating those Duke's lemon bars. Here's what I know. The best lemon bars don't use gelatin or sweetened condensed milk. I know, those are two standard ingredients for thickening the lemon filling. but I loathe the taste of sweetened condensed milk in just about anything. The best lemon bars are not covered with chewy lemon topping, like gelatin, or a sort of pudding-like but very gooey lemon topping, which is what the sweetened condensed milk recipes result in. The best lemon bars, to my mind are very much like good pastry covered with homemade lemon curd, and then sprinkled with powdered sugar, and yes, that mostly means you need to eat them with a fork. So I know what you're thinking; no sweetened condensed milk, and no gelatin means no lemon bars.

Au contraire my friend. One of the reasons those lemon bars at Duke's are so good is that cooked eggs serve to thicken the lemon, and yes, that's exactly how lemon curd is made. I have strong suspicions that they may have contained unhealthy amounts of butter, as well, but it's only a suspicion. I have no proof.

Other things I've learned; too many eggs in the lemon filling, and the lemon bars end up tasting too much like egg yolk; adding extra lemon juice (just a little extra), and extra lemon zest, (a little) is a good thing, and yes, do add a little lemon zest to the pastry. If you have almond meal or hazelnut meal, you might want to try substituting a third or 1/2 (but not more) of the flour in the pastry and for almond or hazelnut meal, if you're sure no one eating the lemon bars might have a nut allergy.

Other hints: If you can get Meyer's Lemons, get them. They really are different, and quite lovely, and the rind especially is noticeably sweeter and more fragrant. If you can't get Meyer's Lemons, look for "Sweet lemons, " or "Persian lemons." These are very different but quite amazing, and you might want to cut down the sugar a bit if you use them. These are intensely, naturally sweet; you'll want to buy extra to make lemonade with since you can make it with almost no added sugar at all. The pastry really shouldn't be so dense that you need to work at it to cut it with a fork. It also should be cooked through. In my experience, popping the pastry into a hot oven for ten or so minutes before adding the filling imakes a huge difference. Set it aside to cool while you work on the lemon topping. When you're zesting or grating the lemon rind, remember it's the rind you want, not the white flesh beneath it, which on some lemons is quite bitter.

I note that I'm not alone in my heartfelt dislike of sweetened condensed milk; Mary of the blog Alpine Berry writes "I prefer a dominant lemon flavor untainted by the milkiness of cream, evaporated or condensed milk." I'll point out that the Alpine Berry recipe Mary posts also just happens to list a half-pound of butter as one of the primary ingredients. This only furthers my suspicion that real butter, although paving the way (greasing the track?) to cholesterol hell, is absolutely crucial to any truly amazing lemon bar recipe. You can find her recipe here, and thus far, it's my favorite, though I'd likely make it with Meyer's Lemons (and consequently use less sugar) if the lemons were available. But Mary's recipe, which uses shortbread for the crust and lemon sugar is perfect for that special occasion; the lemon sugar needs to be made a day ahead. Kevin's recipe calls for Meyer's Lemons, and also uses a shortbread style base; like him, I'd double the lemon filling.Diana Rattray has a straight-forward recipe that calls for a shortbread base, which you bake, then add the lemon topping, and bake again. I've got to say, I'm generally in favor of dessert recipes that call for two sticks of butter. Cooking for Engineers has step-by-step illustrated steps for making lemon bars.

The perfect lemon bar is actually a matter of highly personal taste. That's okay—perfection isn't achieved with a single effort. I'm content to keep trying to perfect my own lemon bar recipe. And then trying some more. Hopefully my arteries will forgive me.