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Lime Bars with Pistachio Crust /  by Amy Cantu

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One of my best friends often craves anything tart and citrusy, and has an especially deep love for key lime anything, as well as lemon bars. This recipe is undoubtedly for her. Not quite key lime pie and not quite lemon bars, these Lime Bars with Pistachio Crust are intensely creamy, cooling, tangy, and perfectly complemented by the nutty, sweet crust. This recipe is somewhat adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe for Key Lime Bars and also one I found for Lemon-Pistachio Bars on NYT Cooking. I found the Martha Stewart one, while delicious, always fell apart due to an overly delicate crust. So I loosely adapted a crust from the latter recipe to come up with this one. It holds together a bit better, but is still a creamy (even a bit gooey) bar.

Notes: Don't skip any of the cooling steps, or the bar will not hold together. The limey tanginess is fairly intense, so you can cut the bars into 16 small squares, rather than the 9 large squares I have pictured here - a little can go a long way! Make sure to store any leftovers (what??!) in the fridge.

Time: 20 minutes (active), 2 hours (inactive)
Yield: 9 large squares or 16 small squares

For the crust:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup wheat bran, toasted
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup shelled salted pistachios, finely ground

For the filling:
2 large egg yolks
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a n 8-inch square baking dish with non-stick cooking spray or  melted butter. Line bottom with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides.

In a small food processor or a clean coffee bean/spice grinder, finely grind pistachios.  In a large bowl, combine ground pistachios with flour, wheat bran, and sugar. Dump in the butter pieces and use your fingers to squish the butter pieces into the flour mixture, until everything looks like lumpy wet sand. You should still see streaks of butter.  (This can also be done completely in the food processor. Add all the dry ingredients and pulse until finely ground. Add butter and pulse a few times, until only pea-sized pieces of butter remain.) 

Press mixture into bottom and 1 inch up sides of prepared pan. Bake until lightly browned,  about 20 minutes. Cool crust, 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and condensed milk. Add lime juice; whisk until smooth. Pour filling into cooled crust; carefully spread to edges.

Bake until set, about 15 minutes. Cool in pan on rack; then chill at least 1 hour before serving. Using parchment paper overhang, lift out of pan, and transfer to a cutting board. With a serrated knife, cut into  9 large squares or 16  small squares, wiping knife with a damp kitchen towel between each cut. Eat with delight (or store in refrigerator until ready to serve).

Adapted from here and here.

Coconut Bars /  by Amy Cantu

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My obsession with all things coconut continues: I present to you these Coconut Bars, perfect for all of your afternoon tea and picnic treats! Even better - these coconut babies are nut-free, gluten-free, and vegan, so you can share these without displaying any warning signs. You can thank me later. These Coconut Bars are sweet, chewy, very coconut-y (obviously), and rich. The coconut flavor comes three-fold from coconut oil, coconut extract, and coconut flour - they are like eating macaroons in bar form, or like eating white chocolate covered coconut. Yes, please.

Notes: The original recipe uses all white sugar, but I swapped some out for brown sugar, which gives it a bit of caramel flavor. These Coconut Bars are good at room temperature, but I found that I loved them even more chilled. They became chewy and dense, rather than soft and crumbly. You can choose how you like to eat them, but alongside tea or coffee, they have found their match made in heaven.

Time: 1 hour
Yield: 12 large squares or 24 small triangles

8 oz. high quality white chocolate
1 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 /2 cups coconut flour

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan and line the bottom and two sides with parchment paper. (Leaving a bit of overhang makes it easy to lift the cooled bars from the pan).

Break white chocolate into small pieces and dump into a large mixing bowl. Heat the coconut oil in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave for 1 minute, until oil is hot when touched. Pour oil over the white chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Add coconut and vanilla extracts, salt, and egg whites, stirring well to combine.

n a separate bowl, hisk together both sugars. (If brown sugar is very lumpy, microwave for a few seconds to soften the brow sugar and press lumps with the back of a spoon or sif.) Stir sugars into the white chocolate mixture - a few small lumps are just fine.  Stir in the coconut flour, until just combined.

Pour batter evenly into the prepared baking pan, and smooth out the top with a spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is set and golden. Cool completely in the baking dish set on top of a rack. Once cool, remove the Coconut Bars from the pan and cut into desired pieces. Devour at room temperature or chilled.

Adapted from Saveur Magazine.