Pink Lemonade Crumb Bars

Hi. Did I mention it's LEMONADE WEEK around here? What does that mean?

Well it just means I have some pretty great lemon recipes I've been saving up, and over half of them have lemonade in the title or ingredient list, plus it's August and that is all I want to drink!

It also takes me back to two years ago when I was in my first trimester with Poppy and very nauseous. Nothing looked or sounded good even though I was so hungry! So I went to the grocery store with the goal of walking up and down every aisle until I found one thing I could stand to consume. It was in the last row by the sour cream and orange juice. A big bottle of Simply Lemonade, cut to half strength with seltzer. It really got me through some tough months.

You can look forward to more fascinating anecdotes like that one all week! That's what LEMONADE WEEK means.*These bars are serious bake-sale material. And I love how the "pink" part comes from something at least a little more natural than food coloring. Raspberry jam offers subtle color and flavor to make these bars just a little more than "lemon."

Pink Lemonade Crumb Bars (print recipe)
Crust and Crumbs:
2 cups plus 2 T all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
5 large eggs
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam, stirred to loosen up
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
Grated zest of 1 lemon (about 1 1/2 tsp)

1. Heat oven to 350. Line a 9x13-inch metal baking pan with nonstick foil.

2. Crust and Crumbs. Combine 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, almonds, and salt in a food processor. Pulse to finely grind almonds and blend ingredients. While processor is running, add butter and vanilla. Reserve 2/3 cup crumbs mixture and press rest into bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, with your hands, blend remaining 2 T flour into reserved crumbs.

3. Filling. In a medium-size bowl, whisk sugar and flour. Whisk in eggs, then raspberry jam. Whisk in lemon juice and zest.

4. Remove crust from oven and pour filling over crust. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes. Sprinkle crumbs over top of bar and bake an additional 15 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Chill before cutting into bars. Refrigerate until packaging or serving.

Recipe from Family Circle, April 2011
*Have an excellent lemonade story, or, even better, recipe, to share? Please do - I am comment-thirsty!