Pink Lemonade Bar

ay for me! This is something I have wanted to try for a while now. Ever since the advent of spring this year and with red ripe strawberries showing up everywhere, pictures of various strawberry based recipes including some perfect gorgeous strawberry lemonade bars all over the web. After extensive research on the internet bookmarking a lot of recipes and cooking them through in my head (or 'soft-cooking' as I like to call it), I eventually came up with my very own version of these beauties. I like to call them Pink Lemonade bars. Love the reddish purple-pink color. They are really easy too. During the soft-cooking process in my head however, they seemed a lot tricky - getting the right texture, tartness, sweetness and then cutting them into the perfect squares. They are in fact a breeze to make, gorgeous to look at and taste amazing! Hubs described it perfectly when he said it tasted like an exotic and complex sweet dish, tart and fruity balanced just right with sweet and creamy with the crust adding a playful texture. Delightful!

Ingredients:

For the crust -
All purpose flour		1 1/4 cup
Powdered sugar		1/2 cup
Salt		a pinch
Unsalted butter		10 tbsp, at room temperature cut into small pieces
Lemon zest		1/2 tsp
For the filling -
Fresh strawberries		3 1/2 cups, packed, chopped
Sugar		1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups
Eggs		2
Fresh squeezed lemon juice		1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (3-4 lemons)
Lemon zest		1 1/2 tbsp (from 2 large lemons)
All purpose flour		2/3 cup
Powdered sugar		for dusting

Method:

For making the crust:
1. Line a 9 inch square pan with parchment paper and spray some cooking spray.
2. Blend the flour, salt and powdered sugar together in a food processor.
3. Add butter pieces along with the zest and process until everything is blended and a loose dough forms.
4. Place this mixture into the prepared pan. Press evenly to the bottom with your fingers.
5. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. Preheat the oven at 350ºF.
6. Bake for about 22 -25 minutes or until crust is golden. Maintaion the temperature of the oven.

For the filling -

1. Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor, add the sugar blend till mixed properly.
2. Add in the flour and pulse to mix everything to combine. Add in the egg, lemon juice and pulse till no lumps and mixed properly.
3. Strain the seeds if you wish - I like to just leave it like that. Take out in a bowl and stir the zest.

4. Pour the mixture evenly into the crust and bake for 25 - 30 minutes.

5. Let cool to room temperature and then keep in the refrigerator for 4 - 6 hours. Cut into desired shape and serve. Keep the leftover refrigerated. ENJOY!

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