SRC: White Chocolate Lime Shortbread Bars

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before. 

This month I was assigned the blog Sweet As Sugar Cookies, written by Lisa.  I have been reading Lisa's blog for a long time and we've been in Group A together for three years now, so I was surprised to realize I had never been assigned her blog before.  Even though she has a few savory dishes on there, I knew that I had go sweet this month.  Lisa has so many great sweets.  I was tempted to try her Lemon Meringue Pie since I have never made it before, but in the end I went with something a little less daunting.   I needed to take a dessert to our friends' house when we went over for dinner, and I knew that my friend just loves shortbread bars, so I decided to try her White Chocolate Lime Shortbread Bars.  I thought they were just perfect for summer.  

White Chocolate Lime Shortbread Bars

Ingredients:

½ lb. (2 sticks) butter, softened

¾ cups powdered sugar

1¼ cups granulated sugar, divided

½ tbsp vanilla 

2 cups + ⅓ cup flour, divided

2 large eggs, room temperature

Zest of 1 lime, grated finely

⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

White chocolate, squares or baking chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°.  Coat an 8x8”, 9x9”, or 11x7” baking dish with baking spray.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter, powdered sugar, and ½ cup granulated sugar.  Stir in vanilla, then gently fold in 2 cups of flour.  Divide mixture in half and place half in the prepared baking dish.  Spread evenly on the bottom.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Remove and let cool.

In another bowl, whisk together eggs, lime zest, lime juice, remaining ¾ cup granulated sugar, and remaining ⅓ cup flour.  Pour this mixture over the bottom crust.  Crumble remaining shortbread dough on top, covering it evenly.  Return to oven and bake another 25 minutes, or until filling is set and top begins to turn golden.  Remove from oven and let cool.

Melt some white chocolate in the microwave until it is the right consistency to drizzle.  Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled bars.  Let sit for a few minutes, then cut into squares and serve.

Makes 9-12 servings.

These are so yummy!  The lime flavor is just right; not sour or overpowering.  I love the little flecks of green the zest provides. The white chocolate drizzle is optional, of course, and the bars are still good without it, but it adds a nice finishing touch.  And I think it's pretty too.  

I only made a couple of minor changes to Lisa's recipe.  Her recipe didn't say what temperature to bake them at, so I checked that out at the source she got it from.  I used large eggs instead of extra large because that's what I had. They seemed to work fine.  The only other thing I changed was that the original recipe called for baking after the addition of each layer.  I did it that way, but I had trouble getting the top layer to brown.  I felt like the lime layer got a little more done than necessary while I was trying to get the top to brown.  So next time I will bake the bottom crust, then add the lime layer and the top at the same time and bake those together.

I like how these bars are flexible on what size dish to bake them in.  I made two batches; one in an 11x7 to take to our friends' house, and a 9x9 to photograph later.  They both worked just fine.  And I'm sure an 8x8 would be fine too.

Our friends loved these bars and we did too.  They were a big hit with the kids and the adults alike.  Thanks for a great recipe, Lisa!

   

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