The bright beauty of these Blood Orange Meringue Bars belies how simple the overall recipe is and you only need 3 medium blood oranges to give you sufficient juice in these bars.

Blood oranges have a shorter season than regular oranges and their bright color and sweeter flavor lend themselves perfectly to baked desserts which makes serving up a slice of this a real standout thanks to the hue of curd found in these bars.

Why you’ll love this

The light buttery shortbread base

It's super simple, is only two ingredients and bakes up beautifully whilst being a nice shortbread foundation for the curd and meringue.

The curd

Though the intensity of blood orange color is lost a little dur to the egg yolks in the curd, it is perfectly balanced thanks to the tang of acidity in the lime juice.

Fluffy meringue

The meringue is no bake and actually super simple to create which makes these bars ideal to serve up to a bunch of loved ones and impress them all!

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 would be too fine and wouldn’t give our base a firm texture.
Butter: Room temperature unsalted butter is used here, though salted butter would also work if that’s what you have on hand. Room temperature is best because it combines with the sugar and other base ingredients best.
Sugar: As a result of using superfine or caster sugar, the nice fine granules dissolve into our 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 that could affect the outcome of the dish. If you cannot source blood oranges, you could subsitute 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.
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.

Equipment needed to make this

Greaseproof paper: Lining your tin will make getting your bars out a breeze!

Offset spatula: A small spatula helps smooth out shortbread base, curd filling and shaping the meringue topping to your preference.

Baking tin: A 18x18 cm or 7x7 inch square baking tin works well here, though a rectangle tin would also work well.

Mixing bowl: A medium mixing bowl (or 2) is needed to make both the base and whip the meringue.

Small saucepan: To make the curd and Swiss meringue, you’ll need a small saucepan or pot.

Whisk: A whisk will be best for combining the curd.

Blowtorch: To create the perfect caramelized topping.

Hand or stand mixer: To whip the meringue you need a mixer, particularly as you need to beat in the sugar syrup to those egg whites and you need to be mixing consistently so a stand mixer is best here, though you absolutely can whip the meringue with a hand mixer.

More curd recipes you'll love

Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Rolls

Pavlova

How to make Blood Orange Meringue Bars:

Preheat your oven to 160C/320F and line a baking tin with greaseproof 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.

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.

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!