Is it really dinner if there isn’t any dessert?
Rational adult answer: Yes, yes, it certainly is. Honest adult answer: Frankly, no. Not at all. Dessert is the “closure” to a meal, and if romantic comedies have taught us anything, we all need closure.
Sure, I’ve usually got frozen cookie dough balls waiting at the ready in our freezer to be baked off at the last minute (and by baked off I mean eaten frozen and raw by twos and threes in his case, or in my case, dug through and mined for the chocolate chips. Oops). And yes, there's generally a pint of ice cream tucked behind the frozen peas.
And if you consider yogurt swirled with jam and granola a suitable dessert, then you're covered as well. (Arguably that’s breakfast, but the point here is sweetness so broaden your mind.) In a pinch, you could even call a mug of questionably stale-ish Rice Krispies dessert if you use sweetened hazelnut milk instead of regular milk. Not that I’ve done this on a semi-regular basis. I’m just saying…you probably could.
If you are a card-carrying member of the Must Have Dessert Before Bed Club, then these will all do the trick. But dessert shouldn’t always be about making do—so when you can, you should make it a deliberate and thoughtful pleasure. You should take the time to make something. It could be a quick and easy comfort food (stovetop chocolate pudding) or a longtime favorite (my mom’s cookies) or a new recipe that piques your interest (Melissa Clark’s snickerdoodle pound cake, I’m coming for you!).
A dessert that might fall into both the second and third category for you, depending on where you grew up, is gooey butter cake. I challenge you to find a dessert with a more enticing name! Often called St. Louis Gooey Butter Bars, the original recipe is said to have originated in the 1930s in Missouri—I don’t care where or when it came from, I care that it makes a moist, golden cake with a soft, gooey center and chewy, crinkly edges.
Imagine if a snickerdoodle cookie met a yellow sheet cake. And they met a yeasted coffeecake. And they all had a riotous love affair, like a baked good version of Casablanca—Ilsa being the sheet cake, Victor being the snickerdoodle, and Rick of course playing the dreamy coffeecake.
Gooey butter cake would be the result of all three of those recipes mashed into one. It’s baked in a 9” x 13” pan and served in squares. The recipe has two parts: a yeasted cake base and a top layer of gooey, sugary batter that you dollop on in big spoonfuls. It’s sweet, yes, but we’re talking about dessert here!
That being said, many recipes are very, very sweet. They have corn syrup and sugar and they produce a tooth-achingly sugary cake that reminds me of a slice of chess pie.
I prefer the cake slightly less sweet (this is a theme in my recipes, so adjust according to your own taste)—I like to taste the delicate yeasty flavor of the cake base, and I like not feeling like three bites will knock me out like a strong cocktail.
If you reduce the sugar in the classic recipe considerably, you run the risk of losing the gooey texture. So instead I thought about what I could add to balance out the sugar, instead of trying to subtract. Enter…lemon! Tart and sour, it does the trick.
So, let’s do it. Lemon gooey butter cake bars. Once you try these, it’s unlikely you’ll go back to regular lemon squares ever again!
(Important note: Many recipes for St. Louis gooey butter cake call for “1 package yellow cake mix” in the base. If you see this, run don’t walk in the other direction.)
Note: I recommend using a scale for all your baking recipes, but for this one in particular, it’s really important to weigh your flour, especially for the topping. If you don’t, you run the risk of adding too much which will cause the cake to be too cakey and not gooey enough!
Lemon Gooey Butter Cake
Makes one 9” x 13” pan
For the cake
4 tablespoons (60g) milk, at room temperature
2 ¼ teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry or instant yeast
6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 lemons, zested and juiced
3 tablespoons (38g) sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
1 ¾ cups (206g) all-purpose flour
For the topping
3 tablespoons (58g) light corn syrup
2 tablespoons (28g) water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
zest of 1 lemon
1 ¼ cups (248g) sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
1 ¼ cups (149g) all-purpose flour
Butter or grease a 9” x 13” pan very well, or line it with parchment and lightly grease the parchment.
In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and yeast and set aside.
Place the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the lemon zest and rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips. Add the butter and salt and beat until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes on medium-high speed.
Add the egg and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Add the flour and milk/yeast mixture and beat for just a minute, then add the lemon juice and continue beating until the batter comes together. Don’t overmix.
Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and press it gently into an even layer. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let it rise, out on the counter, for about 2 1/2 hours.
Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the topping: Whisk together the corn syrup, water, and vanilla.
Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingertips, then place it in the bowl of a stand mixer with the butter and salt. Beat until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes on medium-high speed.
Add the egg and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Add the flour and the corn syrup mixture, and beat until smooth.
Remove the plastic wrap from the pan and dollop the topping over the base in big spoonfuls. Use an offset spatula to gently smooth out the toppings, but don’t worry too much about making it perfectly smooth.
Bake the cake for 30 to 45 minutes. Start checking at 30 minutes—it’s ready when the top is a light golden brown but the edges are starting to get even darker. The center will appear liquidy still—this is fine. Take it out! It’ll firm up as it cools and end up perfectly gooey.
Let cool fully in the pan before slicing and DEVOURING.