Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

So the kids' school is having their annual Family Fun Fair this Thursday and one of the highlights is the Bake Sale table.  I'm on the Parent Council which oversees this event and for the last couple of years I've had the pleasure of organizing the bake table.  I have and will be making lots of goodies for this event but I'll break each one down to its own post over the next few days.

Today I tried something new.  Strawberry Lemonade Bars.



(sorry for the camera phone shots, but my camera is being temperamental and is refusing to work even with brand new batteries.)

I've made lemon bars many times (and in fact I will be doing that post later)  but while looking around on bakebakebake  I came across this post for Strawberry Lemonade bars.   Hmmmmmmm......2 of my favorite things. 

I did make some adjustments to this recipe for this round of baking to take advantage of some strawberry jam that i had made with the kids last summer that never set (but kept in the freezer just waiting for this recipe!).  For this batch I used the jam and meant to omit the sugar (as the jam is full of it) but forgot and added the sugar anyways.  The end result?  I personally found it a bit on the sweet side although every one I got to play guinea pig  be a taste tester says they tasted great and not too sweet at all.

Also the recipe in the link is a halved recipe which was fine for me as I wanted to test it out, however i found that there just wasn't enough dough for the crust so i made a second batch of dough.  I used a brownie pan instead of the 8 x 8 recommended.  I left the filling as the halved amount.

The following is the recipe as I made it this time.
Crust - 4 tbsp sugar
           1/2 cup margarine (you could of course use butter)
           1 1/2 cup flour
            1/2 tsp salt




Cream butter and sugar








add flour and salt and mix until crumbly.  Press into tin foil lined brownie pan. (lining with foil allows you to lift the whole thing out of the pan to make cutting more easier) Bake at 350f/175C for 15-20 min or until edges are slightly golden brown,


  Filling - 1/2 cup lemon juice ( I used juice and pulp from 2 large lemons)
               zest from both lemons (about 2 tsp)
               1/4 cup strawberry jam mush :o)
                1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
                2 eggs
               2 tbsp flour
                1/4 tsp baking powder
                1/8 tsp salt
             

blend first 5 ingredients, in separate bowl blend flour, baking powder and salt then add to lemon mixture stirring until smooth.  When crust is done, pour filling over it and return to oven for another 20-25 min or until filling is set.  Let it completely cool before moving to fridge.  Let chill a few hours to really set it.





I also had a few mini tart shells on hand and I filled a few of those.  Although I liked the tart shell I think I prefer the taste of the bar crust.

All in all this is a keeper and I will keep you all updated on any further tweaking that I do to it.  If any of you give it a go, I would love to hear from you about how you did.

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