Raspberry Lemonade Bars

A really good lemon bar is like heaven on earth to me. I love them so much! I came to Stanford for graduate school partially because at recruitment weekend they fed us lemon bars, seriously. But I have not met with much luck in making them for myself. They always turn out runny or taste too much like eggs. But when I saw this recipe and knew that raspberries were still in season, I thought I would give it a try (especially as it would allow me to use my new kitchen toy, the immersion blender/food processor thingy.) I made a half batch in a 9x9 pan and they came out perfect! Tangy and sweet and delicious. The Robber and I ate the whole pan in two days. These are super easy so I will definitely make them again when raspberries are back. Now what to do with six egg yolks...

From Annie: http://annies-eats.net/2011/09/02/raspberry-lemonade-bars/

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2¼ sticks (18 T.) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ C. sugar

2 C. all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

For the raspberry-lemon layer:

3 C. sugar

1 1/3 C. all-purpose flour

3 T. lemon zest

¼ tsp. salt

3 C. frozen raspberries, thawed (I used fresh)

6 large egg whites

2 large eggs

1 1/3 C. freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used a wee bit of lime too)

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, 1-2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the flour and salt just until incorporated.

3. Add the dough to the prepared baking pan. Press into an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from the oven, maintaining the temperature.

4. While the crust is baking, make the top layer. Combine the sugar, flour, lemon zest and salt in a large bowl and whisk to blend. Add the raspberries to a fine mesh sieve and press through, mashing with a spatula, to extract as much juice and pulp as possible, straining out the seeds.

5. Add the egg whites and eggs to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk well to blend. Whisk in the raspberry puree and lemon juice until smooth. (Or you can just add everything into a blender and blend it around without the sieve part, we didn't have a problem with seeds using fresh berries.)

6. Pour the mixture over the crust and bake until the center is just set and not longer jiggles when gently shaken, about 35-40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

7. Cover and chill well in the refrigerator, at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, use the parchment paper to lift the bars from the pan. Place on a cutting board and slice into bars.

Dust the tops with confectioners’ sugar if desired.

Post-edit: Made some of these with strawberries and they didn't set up as well as the raspberry kind. Don't know if it is the strawberries themselves or something I did differently, but I like the tangy-ness of the raspberry kind more anyway.