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 flour1/4 cup wheat bran, toasted1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup shelled salted pistachios, finely ground