Raspberry Lemonade Bars

Dude it is hot here, like hot. HOT. Not to mention the cicadas are about to eat my sanity whole. So I thought that a light, fruity desert might be nice, plus I was starting to get stuck in a rich, chocolatey, mostly peanut-buttery desert rut.

I love lemon squares- they're one of my all-time favorite deserts, I actually used to get teased about it in college. But come on, lemon squares (good ones) are possibly one of the lightest, tangiest most wonderful deserts on earth. Am I right? Am I right? So I had to grab this recipe.

And I'm glad I did.

Because they are delicious.

 Your ingredients. I know! That's it! Also, I'd like to say how much I love King Arthur Flour. And apparently I love Domino as well. Look at me, I should get paid for this kind of advertising.

 So, your crust. Cream together your butter and sugar, then add in the flour until it's mixed.

Press it into the bottom of an 8x8. You can see I decided to give parchment paper another chance. And I can begrudgingly say that in this recipe, it works great. Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes until it looks like this...

 Yum. Just ignore the drop of raspberry on there- or pretend I did it on purpose for dramatic effect.

 While the crust is cooling, make your filling. Whisk together your sugar, egg, egg whites, lemon juice, lemon zest, flour and salt and it'll look like this- deliciously lemony.

Here comes the tricky part. You're supposed to press the raspberries through a sieve, meticulously pulling out the seeds so that ONLY THE JUICE gets in the lemon mixture. Well, I decided that was impossible and I didn't care about the seeds. So I shoved them through and just got some raspberry guts, seeds and all. And you know what? Didn't affect the taste. So, if you really don't like eating raspberry seeds then you can do it like you're supposed to. Frankly, I think it tastes just as delicious the way I did it. But cooking is all about preference. Anyway.

Then just mix it all together, pour onto the crust and bake for another 30 minutes or so! You'll be glad you did.

And apparently I still have a problem with lemon squares, because I took that top picture at 8:03am and consumed the pictured square by 8:11am.

Raspberry Lemonade Bars
Slightly adapted from Handle the Heat
8 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 2/3 cup flour
pinch of salt
3 egg whites
1 whole egg
2/3 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon zest (I zested 2 lemons and it was perfect)
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries, thawed
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat your oven to 350°. In an electric mixer, cream together the butter and 1/4 cup of sugar. Add the flour and the salt until mixed. Press the dough into an 8x8 pan that has a sheet of parchment paper in the bottom of it with a little hanging over the sides so that you can lift the bars right out when they're done. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until it is just golden brown.

After the crust comes out of the oven, make your filling. Whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, egg, egg whites, 2/3 cup flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar in a large mixing bowl. Push the raspberries through a sieve to get a fair amount of juice and raspberry guts into the mixture (about 2 tablespoons). Mix in and then pour the mixture over the crust.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the filling is completely set, and doesn't jiggle. Let the bars cool completely and then refrigerate. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.