Strawberry Lemon Bars

I loooove lemon bars, and recently found an amazing recipe.  I was planning to make them a few nights ago, but when reaching into the refrigerator to pull out the ingredients my eye caught the 2 pints of fresh strawberries we'd recently bought (and needed to eat!).  So I decided to invent (well not really, because there are plenty of other recipes out there) Strawberry Lemon Bars :)  They're like fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade on a hot summer day!  They are really simple to make and only take about an hour from start to eat (maybe a little longer if you let them cool completely!).  I also decided to nearly half the sugar from many regular lemon bar recipes since I was adding in sweet tangy strawberries.  Here it is...

Ingredients:
Crust

I chop up the butter into thin slices before working into mixture

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 stick cold butter

For the strawberry lemon filling:
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
2 tsp lemon zest
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
5-6 large fresh strawberries (pureed)
additional confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350. To make the crust, combine the confectioners sugar, flour and sea salt in a large bowl. Cut in the cold butter and work with your fingers and a fork until it's well mixed and crumbly. Press into a greased nine inch pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden.

Should look something like this before pressing into your pan

While the crust is baking, start on the lemon filling.  Whisk together the granulated sugar and flour in a bowl. Add the eggs and whisk well.  Add the lemon zest and juice and mix until everything is smooth and combined.

Puree strawberries (I just used a little food processor for this) and keep in a separate dish for now. Pour lemon filling over hot crust.  Pour strawberry puree over lemon filling and use a knife or spatula to swirl.  (You could also just mix the strawberries in with the lemon mixture before pouring over the crust. I just like the swirled look!)   Return to oven to bake for another 18-20 minutes. When done, the filling will no longer jiggle. Let cool completely in the pan, then dust with powdered sugar and slice!

I cut the strawberries in half and throw them in the food processor

After :)

Pour into lemon mixture

Swirl!

Swirled conconction before being baked!  Last picture I took because we inhaled them so quickly once they were done :)

Happy Summer!