Raspberry Lemon Bars

I love to bake but I do not do it much because hubby requested I do not. Why you ask? He says he loves my baking and ends up eating it all and he doesn’t want to be 300 lbs! hahaha! It is a great compliment but then I end up not baking as much as I normally do! Well since we both have office jobs it is a great way for me to get in my baking needs and then send it off to the office and let everyone else eat the goodness! Sharing IS Caring guys!

On Sunday I definitely got the itch to do some baking. My bestie, Ashley, came over and we decided to bake together! It was a ton of fun! We tried 3 new recipes and my old stand by sugar cookie recipe (it is the bomb!). Everything came out really delicious!

We were in the mood for some raspberry lemon bars which we found on Pinterest (umm…who else loves that site?). They sounded interesting especially because I have only ever made lemon bars never had thought to add another fruit to them!  I love lemon bars! I would say they are definitely my favorite type of dessert…mainly because I pretty much love anything that is lemony! Yum yum!!

So we went on our merry way to head to the grocery store (The UnSafeway if you know 5 points!) got our goodies and got home to get rolling…haha get it? Rolling? Rolling Dough? No? …OK moving on…

It had been quite a long time since I have baked AND I got to do it with my bestfriend! Talk about soo much fun all while watching Playing House! Have you seen that TV Show? If not..you need to! It is hilarious and a great show to watch with your girlfriends, we were just missing a nice glass of wine to go with our day!

So, below is the recipe we used and I added some of my thoughts for the next time I will bake these bars! They came out perfectly baked. If you aren’t a really lemony person you will probably love them as is. I personally needed more lemon! I think the Raspberry amount overpowered the small amount of fresh lemon juice that is mentioned.

Ingredients:

• 12 tablespoons butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (My Suggestion: Add 2 more tablespoons of lemon juice)
• My Suggestion: Add some Lemon Zest
• 1/2 cup crushed fresh raspberries
• powdered sugar for dusting
• lemon slices, whole raspberries, and mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9 by 9 inch baking pan by spraying it with nonstick spray and lining it with parchment paper, leaving excess paper hanging over the sides for easy removal after baking.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar on medium low speed. Add flour and mix until a dough is formed. Press the dough into the bottom of the 9 by 9 inch baking pan. I use a small piece of parchment paper to press the dough so that it won’t stick to my fingers.
3. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
4. In the meantime, make the filling.

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar until smooth. Add flour and mix, then add lemon juice and raspberries. Make sure the raspberries are a little bit crushed up by the whisk so that they can be evenly distributed through the filling. When the crust comes out of the oven, pour the filling over the crust. Return to the oven, and bake for another 20 minutes.
2. Cool completely and then dust with powdered sugar. Use the parchment paper handles to lift the bars out of the pan to make cutting easier.
3. If garnishing with lemon slices, whole raspberries, and mint leaves, do this just before serving.
4. What I would do differently: Add in some lemon zest & extra lemon juice (maybe 2 more tablespoons) – the bars came out perfectly baked but if you want a stronger lemon flavor add in what I suggest. If you aren’t much of an lemon person then I would leave it as it is!

Recipe Courtesy of: Lovely Little Kitchen