Two days ago, with the help of these lemon squares, I tackled an age old cooking question. A question that has plagued me since I baked cupcakes from my William Sonoma for kids cookbook. If I don't have baking powder/soda can I replace it with baking soda/powder? And the logical follow up question, why didn't I learn the answer in my 4 years as a chem major? If I had run out of baking powder or soda at home, I would have just asked a friendly neighbor. But alas, I found myself friendly-next-door-neighborless in Boston with a recipe calling for baking soda and only baking powder in sight.
I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I even got to the baking soda, I made a crust. This is Mark Bittman's recipe from "How to Cook Everything". The crust is exceedingly simple, as is the entire recipe. He suggests you make it in a mixer, but I did it by hand. All you need to do is mix butter and flour with a little sugar, press it into a 8x8 pan, and bake for 15 minutes.
