Grapefruit Bars

I like grapefruit, but I never think of cooking with it because I always figured it was too tart for anything. But I went to an annual Solstice party yesterday and our host made these amazing grapefruit bars. They're like lemon bars, but with grapefruit instead and they were amazing!

It's interesting because when making this concoction, it doesn't look like it's going to make sense. There's not a drop of milk in it, so the crust is this incredibly dry mixture of flour, sugar and butter. But once baked, the butter holds everything together kind of like a graham cracker crust does.

And the taste? WOW! They are pretty sweet, not tart at all. The recipe uses the juice of one large grapefruit and the zest from two grapefruit, but still no tartness whatsoever. I imagine you could change the ratio of things a bit if you wanted a more citrusy flavor, but personally I think they are fantastic just the way they are.

As I'm sure you're aware, grapefruit is an excellent source of Vitamin C, which studies suggest can help to fight off colds, or at least help reduce the intensity and duration of them. And I didn't realize this, but grapefruit's season actually starts in Winter, which means now is the perfect time to grab a few of these and give this a try.

If you are trapped in one of those snow-covered places on the map right now, this is like a little sugary square of Summer right at your sticky fingertips.


INGREDIENTS

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (if you don't own a sifter, whisking works too)
4 beaten eggs
1/2 cup sifted confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1/3 cup grapefruit juice
3 Tbsp grapefruit zest, to taste
1 stick of butter - COLD
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350º 

FOR THE CRUST:

Sift (or whisk) together the 2 cups flour and the confectioner's sugar.

Cut in the butter or margarine using one of those pastry cutter/ dough blender thingies, until the mixture clings together. (I cut the butter into about 1/2" pieces first - it should still be fairly cold.) If you don't have a pastry cutter/ dough blender thingie, you can just use two butter knives in a criss-cross cutting motion and it will work just fine.

Press into a greased and floured 13x9x2 inch baking pan. This is going to look weird. Its going to look very dry. Its going to look like you need milk or something. Dont worry. Just follow the recipe. It comes out fantastic.

Bake at 350º for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Remove crust from oven.

FILLING:

Beat together eggs, granulated sugar and grapefruit juice. Sift (whisk) together the 1/4 cup flour and baking powder; stir into egg mixture.

Pour over baked crust. Bake in the 350º oven for 25 minutes longer. Sprinkle with additional confectioner's sugar. Cool. Cut into bars.

Makes 30. Remove bars from pan after cooled; otherwise they will stick.

ENJOY!