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A square slice of a orange dessert bar topped with chocolate curls on a wooden board.
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5 from 6 votes

Orange Bars

If you're a fan of lemon bars you might like to try making orange bars. They're zesty and sweet and the dark chocolate offers such an incredible flavor contrast.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time1 hour 5 minutes
Chilling time1 hour
Total Time2 hours 25 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Bars
Servings: 9 bars

Ingredients

For the Crust:

For the Curd:

Optional Garnish:

  • dark chocolate bar

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and use parchment paper to line a 9-inch square baking pan, with enough to hang over the sides.

For the Crust:

  • Using a microplane, finely grate 2 tablespoons of orange zest.
  • Combine the flour, white and powdered sugars, and 1 tablespoon of orange zest in a large mixing bowl. Grate the extra cold butter into the flour with a cheese grater, and mix with your hands until a crumbly dough forms.
  • Press the dough into the prepared pan and bake until the crust is pale golden brown, approximately 30 minutes.

For the Curd:

  • While the crust is baking, begin to prepare the curd. Juice your oranges to yield 1 cup of juice.
  • Whisk the orange juice, eggs, sugar, cornstarch, flour, and orange zest in a saucepan over medium heat until they slowly simmer and thicken. Once the mixture boils for 30 seconds to 1 minute, it thickens sufficiently. Remove from heat and strain into a mixing bowl. Whisk in the butter.
  • Once the crust is ready, remove it from the oven and pour the orange curd onto it.
  • Return the pan to the oven and continue baking; rotate after 15 minutes until the curd is set or no depression remains after touching the center; this should take around 30 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled through, at least 1 hour. Cut into bars and garnish with shaved chocolate (optional).

Notes

Perfect squares: To get precise squares with your orange bars, you can use the overlapping edges of the parchment paper to measure and mark 3-inch squares. If you prefer, you can cut rectangles or freestyle squares.
Cooking time: Because ovens do vary, you might find your bars aren't cooked through. If that happens, just pop them back in the oven for another few minutes and check again. Once they aren't jiggling in the middle, they're done.
Get all the juice out: If you want to get as much juice out of each orange as you can, you can either roll them hard on the countertop, pressing down, or give them 10 seconds in the microwave.

Nutrition

Calories: 627kcal | Carbohydrates: 78g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 172mg | Sodium: 279mg | Potassium: 310mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 54g | Vitamin A: 1378IU | Vitamin C: 72mg | Calcium: 81mg | Iron: 2mg

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