The challenge that Peels executive pastry chef Shuna Lydon set for herself was to make a lemon bar that truly tastes of lemon. In most, the starch used to thicken the lemon portion of the bar kills the lemon flavor. The proportion of lemon to bar has to be right, and the bar itself must be a true shortbread, in Lydon’s words — flour slow-cooked in butter. The result of her self-imposed challenge is perhaps the most thought-out lemon bar on the planet, an intense hit of pure, delicious citrus that involves house-made lemon marmalade, a whole raw lemon, brown butter shortbread and a few secret ingredients. This is not a wanna-be tarte au citron, its imperfections strained out of existence, its filling corseted by a fluted crust. It’s a kick-ass, mouth-puckering American bar, nubbly in texture, blessedly light on sugar and with a dark, delightfully crunchy crust.

Photography credit: Shuna Lydon