Pink Lemonade Bars
July 28, 2011 | Print | E-mail | Filed under lemon
Continuing with my lemon obsession, I decided that since we had a couple cooler days this week and I didn’t mind turning on the oven, I’d make lemon bars for dessert. Instead of making my usual lemon bars though, I really wanted to incorporate pink lemonade since I prefer it over regular lemonade (for no other reason than I just love the pretty pink color, haha). I searched high and low to find out what exactly makes pink lemonade pink, but all I could come up with was food coloring. Instead of going that route, I used the juice from some of the sweet cherries I picked last week! The color may not have been as bright as it could have been had I used coloring, but I much preferred the taste and I thought the light pink color was perfectly lovely. I hope these will help cool you down after a hot day!
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp cherry or pomegranate juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, powdered sugar and salt. Stir in the melted butter, and then press the dough into a greased 8×8″ pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust turns light brown.
Reduce the heat to 300 degrees. In another medium bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, eggs, lemon juice, cherry or pomegranate juice, and lemon zest.
Pour the mixture over the crust and bake for 25-30 minutes. After removing from the oven, lightly dust the top with powdered sugar. Let cool completely before cutting into bars.
July 28th, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Ohhh I love the idea of using pomegranate juice, it’s so lovely and sweet, has a great flavour!
July 28th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
What a lovely dessert! Simple to make and looks fabulous! I will turn on the oven for these.
July 28th, 2011 at 7:52 pm
They look good!!!
I’ll have to give these a try with them!
I love lemon, my mom grows pink lemonade lemons, they are actually light pink inside
July 28th, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you for not using food coloring. Now I can make these and my daughter can try them too. They sound great!
July 29th, 2011 at 1:12 am
I love the look of these! Pink lemonade just screams summer! Yum!
July 29th, 2011 at 2:42 am
Cute idea!
July 29th, 2011 at 3:25 am
What a great idea! I completely understand the love for pink lemonade precisely because it’s pink. It’s something about being a girl, I think
July 29th, 2011 at 10:16 am
These look so delicious! I love lemon bars! I love the idea of adding fresh juice in place of food coloring. I’m going to have to try it with raspberry. Thanks for the great idea!!
July 29th, 2011 at 11:53 am
Love the bars, great idea to use cherry or pomegranate juice instead of food color. I got to try that one.
July 29th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
love this idea!
July 29th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
they look delish, you are inspiring a craving!
July 29th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Perhaps pink lemonade originally came about due to pink lemons? http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Pink_Lemons_4170.php
But, since they’re hard to find, people mimic them by adding cherry, grenadine, or other pink fruits to lemonade?
July 30th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
I have always felt the same way about pink lemonade – it’s just more fun! Love that you used your cherry juice to color them.
August 1st, 2011 at 3:04 pm
What a great idea for those of us who love the pink variety. Looks delicious. Come over and visit us. We have a great Southern recipe today.
August 1st, 2011 at 4:07 pm
love the sweet cherry addition!
August 1st, 2011 at 4:19 pm
I LOVE this idea! I wculd eat a billion lemon bars (love lemon desserts) but these pink lemonade bars look even better. You have no idea how excited I am about these!
August 1st, 2011 at 9:34 pm
How fun! James loves lemonade, and always orders it when we go to a restaurant. I giggle every time they bring him a giant pink drink! Maybe I’ll make these for him just to recreate the experience.
August 2nd, 2011 at 9:56 am
Awesome! What a fun twist on these…I love lemon bars, but no one in my house will eat them, so I end up eating the whole pan…I justify it with the whole, “lemon” is such a light flavor
August 3rd, 2011 at 12:34 am
Ooooooooh, I am going to have to try these once I am through my lime bars. I wonder what blueberry juice would do to the color? I’m thinking purple bars would be awesome.
August 3rd, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Angela – Purple bars would be awesome! I hope you give it a try!
August 5th, 2011 at 12:16 am
I’m finally getting caught up on reading after BSP.
Love the look of these bars. I think I might have to make some as a treat for Darron and I this weekend!
August 6th, 2011 at 6:04 pm
I’ve tried 3 times to make Blueberry Muffins blue.
So far, i have only achieved GREY muffins. Not pretty.
Please let us know if you achieve any pretty blue.
October 10th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
I believe pink lemonade originally had raspberries in it!