Minty Lime Bars

Here we are with yet another citrus dessert; I am happy to report the Minty Lime Bars turned out much better than past desserts with high acidity (I think much of my success came from highs and lows with the Preserved Lemon Meringue Cake [high] and Meyer Lemon Tart [low]).

In terms of ingredients, I encourage you to buy a ton of limes. Aside from the fact that I knew my husband would steal a few for cocktails, I made sure to have at least ten limes (the ones at the grocery store that week were very small) and two lemons. Otherwise I had most of the ingredients on hand already.

For starters, I am continually confused on the need to add foil to the bottom of 8x8 pans. Does it decrease the amount of clean-up later? Sure. But foil always breaks on me because it gets stuck to the dessert. I took a risk and skipped the foil. Instead, I just buttered the pan very well.

To make my life easier, I grated two tablespoons worth of limes, chopped the mint and sliced the butter into small pieces before I made the shortbread crust. Then I mixed together the sugar and lime zest until it was fragrant and felt like moist sand.

I added the flour, mint, baking powder, salt and butter. Like many dough recipes, this also requires mashing the butter together with everything else, however the finished product is crumblier than a pie dough. I pressed the crumbly mixture into the bottom of the pan and baked it for about a half hour. The sides browned a tad once it was done.

While the crust was cooling, I worked on the lime curd. I love making a curd; something about citrus turning into buttery goodness just makes me happy. Once again, I prepped the lime juice and lemon juice. I decided to wait to separate the yolks until I was closer to that stage, however I probably should have done that sooner. The citrus juices, cornstarch, salt and sugar reached a boil faster than I expected on the stove, so then I was rushing to get the egg yolks separated and the egg cracked so I could whisk it with sugar to a pale consistency to combine with the citrus mixture while it was still hot (as you can see, it was hectic).

Once I finally had the eggs and sugar whisked to paleness, I then realized I should’ve put this into a bigger bowl, because I had to add the hot citrus mixture into the eggs rather than the other way around! Eventually I got my life together and the entire thing was back on the stove turning into a curd, where I then added pats of butter one at a time.

I poured the beautiful lime curd over the cooled crust and made sure there were no bubbles across the top. After baking for 32 minutes, the curd was set but jiggly in the middle.

However, after experiencing this several times before, I could tell these bars were not as set as they should be once cooled and placed in the fridge for an hour. I decided to put it in the freezer (truthfully, I can’t remember how long I had it in there, but it was probably around an hour or two). I noticed when I had leftover Meyer Lemon Tart that this helped immensely to shape it correctly after baking. Sure enough, the same trick worked with the Minty Lime Bars.

I dusted the bars with powdered sugar and sprinkled on more lime zest. But then the moment of truth arrived—would all my hard work be ruined because I skipped the first step of covering the pan with foil? I was starting to realize where this may have come in handy to lift the bars out as I found the crust tough to cut through carefully to get perfectly square bars. With patience, a good paring knife and an offset spatula, I got those damn bars out of that pan and they looked perfect. Screw foil!

After trying the Minty Lime Bars, I think it’s safe to say the taste goes hand in hand with the Meyer Lemon Tart; they are both tart, tart, tart! My family enjoyed them for dinner; most of us had puckered lips on the first bite or two, but by bite three or four we really liked it. I guess it just takes getting used to! The bars were very good, but I didn’t really get much mint or notice the difference between using more limes than lemons for this recipe.

I think in terms of enjoying a citrus dessert, I would take this version over the Meyer Lemon Tart because a smaller, square slice is satisfying enough for me. I do find, though, that these citrus desserts quickly reveal how friends and family taste things differently. Some people can barely handle a few bites, others could eat the whole pan no problem. I am happy I have figured out the science of getting a curd to set properly, and I am looking forward to more opportunities to work with other citrus fruits to see if the taste differs from limes and lemons.

If Claire shares this recipe on her YouTube Channel, I will post it here!