by Kelly J. Larson

Make room for this winner in your lemon and lime bar recipe collection. These sublime bars have lime zest in an almond shortbread style crust, with a very soft, citrus filling, dusted with powdered sugar. To make them more festive, I top each one with a seasonal candy usually — with candy corn pumpkins in October, then for Cinco de Mayo, Wilton’s royal icing mini flowers add a cheerful pop of color and pizzazz.

Tools make a difference

Having access to a few essential tools makes life much easier for this recipe, including a lemon zester/scorer, a juicer and a food processor, all which cut down the prep time tremendously.

You’ll need to zest a lot of limes. A grater could work if that’s all you have, but be careful not to grate too deeply or you will end up with the bitter tasting pith, the white part beneath the zest.

Then slice the limes in half and squeeze out as much lime juice as possible.

Lime Bars

Crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup almonds 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Generously butter 13-inch by 9-inch pan on bottom and sides. Combine all the crust ingredients in a food processor until moist clumps form. Press onto the bottom of prepared pan.Bake for about 20 minutes, when the edges slightly start to get brown. This batch got cooked a few minutes too long, but will look excellent with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. You can see where my oven mitt smushed the side a little. I’m usually more careful, but was multi-tasking and wanted to show that I have plenty of mishaps along with successes while baking. By the time it’s covered with powdered sugar, it will look fantastic.

Filling:

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 drops blue food coloring
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• powdered sugar for garnish
• festive candies for garnish

Whisk sugar, eggs, lime juice, baking powder and remaining flour in large bowl until well blended. Pour over hot crust. Bake until topping is set and slightly golden, about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on cooling rack. Cut into squares. Decorate as you wish.