Raspberry Lemon Bars

This is the best lemon bar you will ever make. Bold statement, right? But I’m confident that you’ll agree. Oh my GOSH, these are AMAZING!!! I was craving lemon bars and did a search in my Google Reader (that is one of my favorite features! Use it ALL the time!) and found this one. Which I found kind of amusing because it wasn’t the source I was expecting. I thought for sure I’d end up with a Pioneer Woman recipe or one from Marie at The English Kitchen!  I had planned to make it exactly as her recipe but when I got to the part where I needed to get my frozen blueberries out of the freezer, well, I was out. I always have a lot of frozen berries on hand (which was why I didn’t even bother to check how many blueberries I had!) so I swapped the blueberries for raspberries. Now I’m not at all sure I’ll ever try them with the original blueberries! The tart bite you get from the frozen raspberries is sooooooo goooooooood combined with the tartness from the lemon. Amazing!

I also add more lemon zest and juice that the recipe called for. Trust me. These bars are just perfectly tart, almost on the cusp of being too tart (but in the best way possible!) Without further ado. . . .

Lemon Raspberry Bars

Adapted from Beth at The Stories of A to Z

Crust: 2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of sugar

pinch of salt

zest of one lemon

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces and chilled

Topping: 1 1/2 cups of sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

zest of one lemon

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries

Powdered sugar for garnish

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9x13” pan with parchment paper. (If you place one strip going lengthwise and one going the other way you’ll get nice ‘handles’ to pull the finished bars right up out of the pan. Just like I do for brownies. It makes it so much easier to cut them!)

To make the crust: combine the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse to combine.

Add the chilled butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and smoosh it around so you have a nice, tight, even layer.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, make the filling. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and lemon zest and juice and whisk well.

Fold in the raspberries.    

Pour filling into the prepared crust.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is set.

Cool completely on a cooling rack, then use the parchment paper ‘handles’ to pull the bars from the pan.

Use a sharp knife to cut the bars into small squares (if you want them to be easy to pick up) or large squares. (if you want to serve them on a plate as a dessert.)

Dust with powered sugar and enjoy!