Raspberry Lemonade Bars

I am not even going to make excuses for my neglect of this blog anymore. Sometimes life just happens. For me, it appears that lifeis happening a LOT.

I made these a while back and they were a big hit. Perfect for those people who don’t want chocolatey desserts, they have just the right mixture of tart and sweetness to truly make these taste like Raspberry Lemonade bars! Highly recommended for BBQs, afternoon teas and of course, sneaky fridge snacks all for yourself! As a bonus, they are really easy to adapt for those of us with dairy allegies!

Raspberry Lemonade Bars
Adapted from Annie’s Eats

Ingredients:
For the crust:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (or nutellex)
½ cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt

For the raspberry lemon layer:
3 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. lemon zest
¼ tsp. salt
3 cups frozen raspberries, thawed
6 large egg whites
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 175C.  Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.  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.  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.

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.  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.

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.  Cover and chill well in the refrigerator, at least 2 hours.  When chilled, slice into bars.