Lemon Coconut Meringue Bars

Lemon Coconut Meringue Bars
Lemon-Coconut-Meringue-Bars

Bright yellow custard… Sweet tangy lemon…. Meaty coconut… Wrapped in English short bread cookie crust. Chewy and magnetically addictive. Then imagine a toasty cloud of swiss meringue up top. I just described my Lemon Coconut Meringue Bars!! If they only existed on another planet, I’d have to book my flight.  They could transport me to a coffee shop across the Atlantic with brick stone roads and cold air.  Or I could easily be in outer space floating on air… that’s how these bars make me feel.  Close my eyes and entwined in their delicious magic I feel comforted at home and ready for aa another bite.

Ingredients for Lemon Coconut Meringue Bars:

Crust

  • 1 1/2  – sticks of butter (12 tablespoons) (room temperature)
  • 1/2 – cup powdered sugar
  • 1 1/4 – cup flour
  • 1/4 – teaspoon salt

Filling

  • 2 – cups sugar
  • 4 – eggs
  • 3/4 – cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 4 – tablespoons flour
  • 1 – cup shredded sweetened coconut (optional to toast before using)

Meringue

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 1/3 cups bakers sugar

Directions:

  1. Spray a 8×8 or baker’s edge pan with non stick cooking spray, or grease then sugar dust. Set to the side
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Crust:

  1. In a mixer cream together butter and powdered sugar for about 3 minutes. 
  2. Then add in flour and salt and mix until dough comes together. 
  3. Press dough into the bottom of baking pan.
  4. Bake for 17 minutes, or until dough turns slightly browned at the edge.
  5. Remove from oven and set to the side. Leave the oven on.

Filling:

  1. In a mixer add in sugar and eggs and mix until completely combined and mixture turns a light yellowish color. About 5 to 6 minutes on a medium high speed.
  2. Then pour in lemon juice, and mix to combine.
  3. Sprinkle flour over mixture and mix for another minute. Then fold in coconut.
  4. Place in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
  5. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 3 hours.
  6. Once cooled, run a knife along the edge and carefully remove from pan using a small spatula.
  7. Cut into desired size bars.

Meringue:

  1. Mix egg whites and sugar over a double boiler on a low flame. Mix constantly with a whisk until you can no longer feel the sugar between your fingers or until the temperature reaches 150 on a candy thermometer.
  2. Remove from the double boiler and place in standup mixer. Mix with whisk attachment on high for 2 to 3 minutes or until firm peaks form.
  3. Place in a piping bag fitted with a star tip and design meringue on top of each bar.
  4. Then with a torch on a low/medium flame, toast the top of each bar for a golden look.
pan-and-shortbread
Lemon-filling-baked-shortbread-crust
Pan-filled-with-lemon-custard-on-shortbread
Out-of-the-oven-baked-and-cooling

For more direction please find the video of my how to make Lemon Coconut Meringue Bars in my Instagram Highlights.

Lemon-coconut-meringue-bars-center-shot

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