Strawberry Lemonade Bars – those delicious lemon bars with the great addition of strawberries. A great summertime treat what’s perfect all year round!
Strawberry and lemon – two of my favorite dessert flavors.
Hmmm… well, maybe there are others, too.
Chocolate. Chocolate is a good flavor for dessert and I really like that, too.
And don’t forget banana. I really like banana in banana cake.
Hmmm…I guess I enjoy quite a few flavors in my desserts.
I decided to make these after going on the Click Retreat last month. Man, was that awesome. It was a cruise through the Caribbean on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.
I’ll be sharing a recap of the trip next week because if I shared it here with these bars, you’d be reading this post until 2016.
SAVE THESE LEMONADE BARS RECIPE TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!
Ok, I exaggerate. Just maybe into July.
So, pictured below were just some of the delicious desserts aboard the ship. My favorite and something I ate every. single. day. was that strawberry lemonade tart in the back. It was so delicious and I really missed my daily snack them when I returned home.
Now, I can make these delicious bars and I’m slightly transported to bright blue skies, intermittent showers, the smell of salt air, the gentle rocking of the ocean, and even the beautiful beaches.
It was an incredible trip!
I knew I wouldn’t last long on the mainland without these tarts, so soon after I returned home, I added some strawberries to these luscious lemon bars and fell in love.
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Strawberry Lemonade Bars
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup confectioners’ sugar plus extra for topping
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ¾ tablespoon salt
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter plus extra for greasing pan
Filling
- 4 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
- ⅔ cup fresh strained lemon juice
- 1 ¼ cups fresh chopped strawberries
- ⅓ cup whole milk
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Crust
- Lightly butter a 9 X 13? baking dish and line the pan with a sheet of parchment paper.
- Lightly butter parchment and lay a second sheet of parchment across it, so that they are in two different directions.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Slice butter into small pieces and then cut into flour mixture using a pastry cutter or two knives. Work until mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Pour mixture into pan and press firmly into pan so that there is about 1/4 inch thickness on the bottom and crust goes up sides about 1/2 inch.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Place rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350F.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Filling
- In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, and flour.
- Place the lemon zest, chopped strawberries, lemon juice, milk, and salt in a blender and mix until well puréed.
- Add lemon mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until thoroughly combined.
- Reduce oven temperature to 325F.
- Blend filling mixture again thoroughly with the whisk before pouring into warm, but not hot, crust.
- Bake about 25 minutes until the filling feels firm when touched.
- Cool completely on wire rack about 30 minutes. Remove bars from pan and place on cutting board.
- Peel paper down and cut into bars. Wipe knife or pizza wheel off between each cut as necessary.
- Sift confectioners’ sugar over bars.
I rate everything I make on a scale of 1 – 4 with 4 being the best and these Strawberry Lemonade Bars earned 3 1/2 rolling pins.
They were quite delicious and everyone who tried them really enjoyed them.
See that shiny ball of fun sitting in front of the bars below? Can I just tell you how much I love this thing?! It’s an OXO Baker’s Dusting Wand and I can’t stop playing with it.
It made it so easy to top the bars with confectioners’ sugar without it flying all over the counters…ok, my kitchen. It’s also great for sprinkling cinnamon/sugar over toast, and white chocolate cocoa into my coffee.
I only recommend products to you that I enjoy using and feel that you would benefit from, also.
I am not receiving payment from OXO for endorsing their products, but I have received some for personal use.
Let these other sweet treats be a crowd pleaser at your next party…
Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Bars
Snickerdoodle Bars
Easy Lemon Bars
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Comments & Reviews
I LOVED THEM <3 a great alternative to the regular lemon bars! Thanks for sharing! Shared them w/ my friends before we went to our school dance
That’s fantastic, Justine! Thanks so much for letting me know.
What a great thing to do before a dance!
I used to have a recipe for an awesome lemon bar with a streusel topping. That recipe had less than 10 ingredients and took less than 45 minutes to assemble and bake; and I lost it. When an favorite Aunt asked that I make her lemon bars for her birthday, I balked and asked if I could do strawberry lemon bars-she said yes. So, I went to pinterest and was confronted with myriad selection of strawberry lemon bars. I choose this recipe because I had all of the ingredients on hand and it had a good review.
Putting together this recipe was not difficult, but laborious. In between waiting periods, I made another recipe. That said, my bars turned out exactly like the picture and I don’t know how I feel about that. Full disclosure, my previous recipe resulted in a firm bar; this filling was squidgy (I may have made that word up); I have no complaints about the crust, but you could taste the salt acutely. But, back to the filling-it was a good balance of sweet-tart and definitely had a complementary flavor of both strawberry and lemon. I let it cook until it was firm to the touch and did not jiggle when I shook the pan. I let it cool for 30 minutes before I removed it from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack. I let it set in a cool, dry place for 2.5 hours before cutting. When I sliced into it using a pizza cutter, I was surprised to see that the filling was not as firm as I would have liked in the middle. The edges were fine, but the middle was super squidgy- but DOES look like it does in the photo above (the close up). To firm up, I put it in the refrigerator. I recommend keeping it in a cool dry place or refrigerated, because it will melt if left out in the heat.
I do have a question for clarification- was I supposed to butter the parchment the crust was on? I didn’t and the crust stuck badly where the filling was the most wet.
Overall, I would rate this 3.5 rolling pins out of 5.
Erin, thank you so much for your review. I appreciate your honesty and taking the time to let me know what you thought.
The middle will be a bit “squidgy” (I like that description! 🙂 ) and more so than if they were just lemon bars because of the moisture of the strawberries.
In regards to the crust, the parchment shouldn’t need to be buttered as I’ve never had it stick. Just to be on the safe side and if you make these again, maybe greasing the parchment wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Thank you, again!