Blood Orange Meringue Bars

This delicious Blood Orange Meringue Bars recipe includes tangy, citrusy bars feature a buttery shortbread crust, zesty blood orange curd filling and fluffy meringue topping.

Perfect for late winter or spring gatherings, these Blood Orange Meringue Bars will impress your loved ones with their bright appearance and tangy sweet flavors. Blood oranges have a shorter season than regular oranges and their bright color lend themselves perfectly to baked desserts.

Ingredients and substitutions for Blood Orange Meringue Bars

• Plain flour: Plain or all purpose works best here for a nice shortbread base, however, you could use bread flour in equal measure here if that’s all you have on hand. It is not recommended to use cake flour as this wouldn’t give our base a firm texture.
• Butter: Room temperature unsalted butter is used here, though salted butter would also work.
• Sugar: As a result of using superfine or caster sugar, the nice fine granules dissolve into the meringue and add sweetness without adding additional flavors to the curd.
• Corn starch: Sometimes termed cornflour in certain parts of the globe. Corn starch does need to be heated to 95C/203F before it is activated to thicken and acts as insurance in setting our center during the baking process alongside the egg yolks.
• Blood orange juice: This is best freshly pressed so the flavor is strong and has no additives. If you cannot source blood oranges, simply replace with regular oranges in equal measure.
• Lime juice: The lime juice is best freshly pressed and serves to add a depth of acidity to our curd. It also ensures the curd isn't too sweet due to the natural sweetness in blood oranges.
• Eggs: The fat in the curd adds richness alongside the butter. The eggs for the curd and meringue should be room temperature. Particularly the whites because they allow for better aeration at room temperature resulting in a more fluffier meringue.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Blood Orange Meringue Bars:

Step 1: Make that shortcrust base: Toss all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and cut into the flour mixture until it resembles rough breadcrumbs.

Step 2: Base it: Pour the shortcrust mix and press firmly to smooth out.

Step 3: Bake: Bake the crust until lightly golden.

Step 4: Heat: The orange, lime juices with the corn starch and sugar, whisking until thickened and it has gone from looking cloudy to more transparent.

Step 5: Fats: Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks swiftly. Tossing the cubed butter in and whisking until the curd is smooth and glossy.

Step 6: Curd filling: Spoon the curd over the base and spread out evenly. Baking until it’s slightly matte looking. Cool completely.

Step 7: Whip: The egg whites, sugar and salt until soft peaks form. Continue beating on low until it’s reached temperature. Remove and whip at room temperature until stiff.

Step 8: Crown: Spoon or pipe on top of the curd and caramelize that marshmallow fluff to your preference.

Step 9: Serve up: Slice, serve and dig in!

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Blood Orange Meringue Bars

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This Blood Orange Meringue Bars recipe includes a shortbread base topped with a bright homemade blood orange curd and Swiss meringue topping for a truly perfect winter dessert.

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 12

Calories 388 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Base

• 145 grams / 5.11 ounces butter room temperature
• 200 grams / 1 ¼ cups plain flour

Blood orange curd

• 150 grams / ¾ cup superfine/caster sugar
• 40 grams / ⅓ cup corn starch
• 209 grams / 1 cup - 2 tablespoons blood orange juice
• 30 grams / 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 65 grams / 4 large egg yolks
• 60 grams / 2.10 ounces butter cubed

Meringue topping

• 114 grams / 3 large egg whites
• 125 grams / ⅔ cup superfine/caster sugar
• ¼ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

 

Base

• Preheat your oven to 160C/320F and line a 18×18 cm or 7×7 inch square baking tin with parchment paper.
• Place the flour and butter into a bowl and beat on low until the mixture looks like a rough crumble and no piece of butter is larger than a pea.
• Spoon into your baking tin and press down firmly and evenly.
• Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are slightly beginning to pull away from the tin.
• Remove and allow to cool completely.
• Lower the oven temperature to 140C/285F.

Blood orange curd

• For the blood orange curd filling, place the sugar, corn starch and juice into a small saucepan on medium heat, whisking until thickened and it has gone from looking cloudy to a deeper color and slightly translucent, approximately 3 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and add in the egg yolks, whisking swiftly to combine.
• Return to the heat, whisking until the mixture has thickened, approximately 1 minute.
• Toss in the butter, whisking until melted and glossy looking.
• Set aside to cool until the edge of your saucepan is lukewarm to the touch.
• Spoon onto the base and spread out evenly.
• Place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes.
• Remove and allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge to set for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Meringue topping

• For the Swiss meringue, place a small saucepan on low heat with enough water not to touch the base of a heatproof bowl.
• Place the egg whites, sugar and salt into the bowl and put over the simmering water.
• Beat on low until your egg whites reach 73C/165F (if you don’t have a thermometer, the best test is to put a clean finger into the egg whites and you feel no sugar granules between your finger or can’t keep your finger in the mixture for more than 3 seconds).
• Remove the egg whites from the heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
• Beat on medium speed with a whisk attachment until stiff, approximately 7 minutes.
• Add the vanilla extract and whisk to combine.
• Either spoon the meringue on top of your curd or pipe as per your preference.
• Using a blowtorch, lightly burn the meringue to your preference.
• Slice and serve.
• Dig in!

Notes

• Blood orange juice: This is best freshly pressed so the flavor is strong and has no additives. If you cannot source blood oranges, simply replace with regular oranges in equal measure.
• Lime juice: The lime juice is best freshly pressed and serves to add a depth of acidity to our curd so as to ensure the curd isn't too sweet due to the natural sweetness in blood oranges.
• Corn starch: Sometimes termed cornflour in certain parts of the globe. Corn starch does need to be heated to 95C/203F before it is activated to thicken and acts as insurance in setting our curd during the baking process alongside the egg yolks.
• Baking tin: A square baking was used, though a rectangle tin would also work well.
• Offset spatula: A small spatula helps smooth out shortbread base, curd filling and shaping the meringue topping to your preference (if not piping).

Recipe by Roamingtaste

Nutrition

Calories: 388kcal

Keyword bars, citrus, meringue, meringue dessert

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