Grapefruit Bars

Ok this was the dessert I decided to attempt this weekend. It's my third recipe out of a huge collection of recipes but the first two have not turned out. They were both dismal failures, including one that didn't even set up and just looked like a bowl of cereal. Not very promising for the book... I decided to give it one more go though. I thought Grapefruit Bars looked interested because I like cookie bars and I LOVE grapefruit. The recipe itself was pretty easy but even now I'm not sure what I think of the end result. You will need:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp fresh grapefruit juice

3 Tbsp fresh grapefruit juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x9 square baking pan.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

3. In a large bowl, cream the shortening and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Beat in grapefruit juice and zest. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, until lightly colored on top. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.

So what did I think? First, I was afraid the batter was too dry so I added about 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Also, it took a lot longer to bake fully through.. At 25 minutes, it was still gelatinous in the pan. I believe it ended up baking for about 38 minutes before I felt like they were done. I also made a simple lemon frosting to go over the top (3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp water, 1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice). After the bars were baked and cooled, without the frosting they had almost no discernable citrus flavor at all. They almost taste like a spice bread or gingerbread to me. The lemon frosting made a lot of difference for me. As for texture, I expected them to be like a cookie texture, just in a bar form but that isn't really the case. These are more like a denser cake or brownie texture. Very different. Not bad, but also not something that makes you go "oh wow! I HAVE to make these again!" Try at your own risk. :)