Raspberry Lemon Bars: Easy Dessert for Summer
Looking for the perfect treat for your summer picnic or potluck? You’ll love these Raspberry Lemon Bars. It’s like having raspberry lemonade for dessert!
Sometimes it can be a struggle to come up with a great idea for what you should bring to your family’s summer picnic. Lucky for you, today we’ve got the best dessert recipe that I think your friends and family are going to really enjoy – Raspberry Lemon Bars!
Hey there, Idea Insiders! Meaghan from Cook. Craft. Love. is back today and this time she’s brought one of her favorite new lemon dessert recipes, Raspberry Lemon Bars. When she sent me the recipe, she said: “I really wanted to call these raspberry lemonade bars because they taste JUST like raspberry lemonade.” Does that sound perfect for summer or what?
The Perfect Raspberry lemon bars
Meaghan loves to try different ways of creating tasty treats for summer using the fresh taste of lemon. Whether it’s her easy Lemon Cupcakes, her Lemon Raspberry Sweet Rolls or her Lemon Raspberry Donut Holes, she continues to work on her recipes until she’s perfected them. That was the case with these Raspberry Lemon Bars too.
“I tested these three times to get them just right,” Meaghan said. “First I tried swirling the raspberry puree through the top but that left it with some unattractive cracks and craters in the top. Delicious…but ugly. Then I tried doing a regular lemon bar layer and a raspberry glaze on top but they were too sweet. And I knew if *I* found them too sweet they’d kill a normal person.
So lastly I decided to just mix the raspberry puree into the lemon mixture for a delightfully pink and not too sweet bar that tastes just like raspberry lemonade. Yum.”
How to Make RASPBERRY LEMON BARS
These tasty Raspberry Lemon Bars have just the right amount of sweetness. It will feel like you’re serving raspberry lemonade for dessert.
What you need:
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You’ll find a recipe card at the end of this post with the specific quantities for each ingredient and the instructions to make the Raspberry Lemon Bars. First, though let’s cover the basics of what you need as well as some tips and tricks to make your dessert bars the hit of your party.
Kitchen Tools Needed:
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Mixing spatula
- Whisk
- 8×8 pan
- Parchment paper or cooking spray
- Sugar sifter
Ingredients Needed:
- Salted butter
- Flour
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice, about 5-6 lemons
- Fresh raspberries
- Powdered sugar
Tips for making and storing raspberry lemon bars
As you prepare this dessert for your summer picnic or potluck, you may have a few questions.
How can I make them look like the ones in the pictures?
Meaghan offers the following tips and tricks so your bars will turn out as delicious as hers:
- For the 8×8 pan, “I like to spray mine with cooking spray but you can also line it with parchment paper, too if you prefer.”
- “For the pureé, I essentially remove 9 raspberries for garnish and then pureé the rest. It usually works out to around 1/2 a pint-ish. I also like to strain out my seeds but if you don’t mind seeds, feel free to skip that step!”
- “You want the lemon bars to be just set so that they’re solid around the edges (mmm… caramelization) but when you jiggle the pan they wobble ever so slightly but don’t go sloshing everywhere.”
HOW do you STORE RASPBERRY LEMON BARS?
Once they have cooled completely, you can slice them and put them in an airtight container or put them on a serving platter to take to your summer picnic.
DO raspberry LEMON BARS NEED to be REFRIGERATED?
They are safe to eat if they are left out for about a day. Any longer than that and you should refrigerate or store them in the freezer long term.
HOW LONG DO raspberry LEMON BARS LAST?
They are so delicious, we bet they won’t last long! However, if you do need to store them, they will last about 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
CAN YOU FREEZE raspberry LEMON BARS?
Yes, you can freeze raspberry lemon bars. They will last about 6 months in the freezer, but if I were freezing these, I would skip putting the whole raspberry on top for garnish.
There are 2 main ways to freeze them:
- Resealable Plastic Bag – If you are going to store them in a resealable plastic bag, make sure you keep them in a single layer.
- Plastic Container – To store them in a plastic airtight container, place parchment paper in between the layers of bars.
Raspberry Lemon Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 1 stick salted butter
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
For the Filling
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice about 5-6 lemons
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 pint raspberries pureéd (save 9 whole berries for garnish)
For the Garnish
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 9 whole raspberries
Instructions
- To make the crust, cream together butter and sugar until pale yellow. Add flour and mix until a crumbly ball forms.
- Press the dough into the bottom of a lightly greased square 8×8 pan.
- Bake in a 350 preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges.
- While the crust is baking make the filling by beating eggs, lemon juice, sugar, flour, and raspberry pureé together in a large bowl.
- Let sit while crust finishes baking and then give it another quick whisk right before pouring it into the pan.
- When the crust has finished baking pour the mixture over HOT crust and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until just set.
- Allow to cool for several hours (overnight is best) before removing from the pan, slicing into bars, and dusting with powdered sugar.
Nutrition
What’s Next?
While you’re here, you may also enjoy these easy dessert recipes on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® –
- Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake Recipe
- Lemon Truffles: No Bake Easy Dessert Recipe
- Lemon Desserts: 18 Delicious Recipes You’ve Got to Try
- Ambrosia Fruit Salad: A Sweet Side Dish Recipe
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OMG this makes my mouth water.