yummy orange bars

I am a sucker for lemon squares, the fact that they are sweet and tangy just does it for me. I think they are the perfect treat and would love to make them all the time not just because they are easy to whip up but because they are simply delicious but if you live in Lagos like me, I'm sure you know that lemons are hard to come by especially in ikorodu. Of course we can get lemons in big supermarkets like shoprite but on this afternoon, it was just a quick craving and there was no time to run to the supermarket to get lemons. did I mention that they are also very expensive?.
   Anyways, I wanted to eat these cookies so I thought of a substitute. Now oranges on the other hand are everywhere and also very cheap,you don't even have to think too much to get oranges around here thank God for that, so I decided to make orange bars. I know..why didn't I think of lime, limes are closer to lemons but I only remembered limes after I was done baking. I would definitely be trying limes next time.
   I got some oranges and got to work, trust me, they weren't half bad. They had my brothers fighting for and scraping what was left in the pan. If I'm ever out of lemons again, orange bars aren't a bad idea. They are perfect for a sunny afternoon and would go down with a nice cool drink, you can also refrigerate and keep them for a later time because they taste even better when cool. All ingredients used are easy to get no matter where you are so I hope you give this a try. Also if you happen to have lemons and want to make lemon bars instead, all you have to do is replace the orange juice in the recipe with lemon juice and orange zest with lemon zest

Here's what you need
For the cookie layer
1 and half cup of flour
A scant half cup of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of corn flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
80 grams of oil
20 grams of water
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the orange layer
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups of white sugar
4 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup of orange juice *gotten from 2 juicy oranges*
2 tablespoons of freshly grated orange zest. 

 

Measure all the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil and water and then add it to the dry ingredients. bring together with your hands, you should have a non sticky dough like the one in the picture below.

Next you need to get a 9 inch square pan and spread your cookie dough all over it, using your hands make sure you get the dough in every corner of the pan. Once that is done, you need to get a fork and prick the dough all over to avoid rising during baking.

Now bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until it starts to turn golden brown, set aside to cool.

Next whisk together the eggs and egg yolks, add in the sugar, flour, orange juice and orange zest and mix together

Pour the orange mixture over the cookie layer and then bake in the oven for about 30 - 35 minutes or until the orange layer sets.

You see, I left mine in the oven for a bit too long and it got a little dry as you can see from the image below. It stayed in the oven for a total of 45 minutes, God knows what I was doing. Anyways I was still able to salvage it, I scraped off the rough top of the cookie and then cut them into rectangles and voila my orange bars were ready.

So I just played around with chocolate ganache and made jello out of an orange drink to get this pretty plate below. Hope you guys like it

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