Baked orange bars with a buttery crunchy shortbread style crust. If you love lemon bars then these are for you!
I'm a big fan of lemon bars and the more tart they are, the better I like them! But when you have a few giant Cara Cara oranges sitting in the fruit bowl for a while, you need to come up with something to do with them or the bugs will happily take them!
You could just slice them up and eat them as-is, but because I love my lemon bars I wondered what it'd be like to substitute the lemon for orange. Here's what happened, and it was good!
Is there a huge difference between lemon bars and orange bars?
Sort of. The orange bars definitely have a milder taste and aren't tart at all like traditional lemon bars. But they do still taste fresh with a good solid orange flavor.
One of the secrets to any citrus bar or dessert is to incorporate as much zest as you can because that's where most of the flavor is. Try and zest the fruit before you juice it too because it's much easier to zest a whole lemon or orange rather than a half.
How to prebake the crust
It's important to almost fully bake the crust so that the orange bar filling has a good base to bake on. Another important step is to make sure and build a lip around the edges with the dough when you first add it to the baking pan.
I've had filling seep down below the pre-cooked base before and the whole thing turns out like upside down orange bars.
How will I know when my orange bars are ready?
The easiest way to test them is to grab the baking pan with a towel or oven mitt and give it a slight shake. If the center still seems runny then it might need another 5-7 minutes.
When the orange bars are done, shake them again and the filling will jiggle slightly but still seem more firm than liquid form. The orange bars will also set more as they cool.
We don't want to overbake them though or they'll feel gelatinous when they should still be a little bit squishy in the center.
Can I eat them straight away?
It's hard not too with the fresh baked smell, but they have to cool. Once cool they'll be easier to slice into squares and eat individually.
You can store them covered at room temperature but ideally keep them in the fridge and they'll last longer for you. Bring them back to room temperature before you eat them though to enjoy the orange flavor.
They should last two 3-4 days using the fridge. Don't forget to give them heavy dust with powdered sugar before serving.
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