Jasmine Scented Strawberry Lemon Bars - Gluten Free
 
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I'm in love with Lemon Bars and have been playing around with a basic recipe for the past several months. I think you'll enjoy this tasty variation of an old favorite
Author:
Cuisine: Dessert
Serves: 20
Ingredients
  • Shortbread Base
  • • 1½ C Gluten Free Flour (GF) - use your favorite.
  • • ½ C Organic Cane Sugar - I've played around with Coconut Sugar, Brown Sugar, and this is best
  • • ½ C Unsalted Grassfed Butter - note: this is typically one stick
  • • 2-4 tablespoons of lemon juice
  • • 2 Tablespoons zest - depending on the juice you use - use lemon, orange or tangerine
  • • ½ teaspoon bakery grade Jasmine. I've experimented with Lavender and Bergamot
  • Meringue Filling
  • •2¼ C Organic Cane Sugar
  • •5/8 C Lemon Juice - note, I've used Tangerine, Orange and Blood Orange to great success
  • •5 eggs
  • •1/3 C GF Flour
  • •1/8 teaspoon salt
  • Optional: ½ cup micro diced fruit - strawberries (as pictured), cherries, mango, etc. Minced small
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350˚
  2. Make the shortbread with the first six ingredients.
  3. Blend in a mixed, not a blender or ninja. Use a paddle and let it blend until crumbly. Add more juice if you need to.
  4. Prepare a 9x12 ceramic or silicone baking dish by spraying it with olive oil spray or cutting sheets of parchment paper to fit. I do a combination of both
  5. Press the shortbread mix into the prepared pan. Flatten and even it out using the bottom of something is flat and heavy and will help compress the mixture. Preparing the shortbread like this is critical, as you want it to cook evenly.
  6. Place the pan into the pre-heated oven and set timer for 35 minutes. If you have a pizza stone, even better, this evens out the heat, so the shortbread doesn't burn.
  7. While the shortbread is cooking, preparing the filling
  8. In a Ninja blender or Vitamix (you want very high-speed blending)
  9. Put eggs, juice, sugar and GF flour and whirl until frothy. The more froth, the better, this gives a visually interesting sweet meringue topping.
  10. If you are doing the optional fruit variation, put the diced fruit into the blender and blend for 2 seconds max. You want it to stay chunky.
  11. Once your timer goes off on the shortbread, slide it slowly out of the oven and carefully pour the filling onto it. Gently shake the pan a bit to evenly distribute the mixture.
  12. Put back in the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Check at 20 to be sure everything looks good.
  13. When the timer goes off, place the pan in a cool spot and wait 30 minutes.
  14. After 30 minutes, remove the bars and let them cool completely. You can separate them from the paper at this time - it's easier when they're still warm, but you want to cut them after when they have cooled.
  15. Once cool, cut the bars into even squares. Size is up to you. I trim off the sides and save them for snacks and serve the perfectly cooked squares.
  16. Pro tip: Take ⅓ C of powdered sugar and, using a wire strainer, pour the sugar into it and lightly dust the bars just before serving. If you let them set, the sugar dissolves.
Recipe by Chef Mark Sylvester at https://chefmarksylvester.com/jasmine-scented-strawberry-lemon-bars-gluten-free/