Sarah Schiffman is impressed with this coconut shortbread recipe from Ivy Manning and Bon Appetit.
Text And Photo By Sarah Schiffman
These lemongrass bars are entirely amazing.
Soft and snappy and subtly sweet, with a good, firm kick of lemon- they have officially untethered me from my familiar lemon bar anchors.
The quiet tartness of the lemongrass ripples over your tongue in tangy waves, fighting the good fight with the sugar, keeping it in check.
And they boast a golden, buttery shortbread crust that trails a lacy perfume of coconut and completely steals the show.
Yum.
PrintCoconut Shortbread Lemongrass Bars
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 8-12 1x
Description
Beautiful coconut shortbread with a slight lemony kick
Ingredients
Scale
- For the crust:
- 1 1/2 cups (170g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (75g) unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup (60g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (115g) plus three tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- For the Filling
- 1 1/4 cups (280g) granulated sugar
- 3 lemongrass stalks, bottom 4 inches only, finely chopped
- 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup (31g) flour
- 1/4 cup (30g) powdered sugar
Instructions
- For the crust:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (176 C). Butter a 13x9x2 inch baking pan. Using an electric mixer, beat flour, coconut, powdered sugar and salt until well blended. Add butter and beat on low speed until moist clumps form. Press dough onto bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of pan. Bake crust until it turns golden brown, about 25 minutes.
- Make the filling:
- Place sugar and lemongrass in a food processor and pulse until lemongrass is finely ground, about 1 minute. Add lemon juice and process until well blended. Add eggs and process to blend. Add flour and a pinch of salt and pulse until smooth.
- Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees (162 C). Pour filling over hot crust and bake until firm, about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.
- Once completely cooled, cut as desired, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
- Prep Time: 35 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
I love the lemongrass here! This really sounds like a new venture in the land of lemon bars…scrumptious!
Hi Alisha! I can’t say it enough…these were a wonderful take on the classic lemon bar.
I wrote this recipe. Nice to see someone else is into the idea of tinkering with a classic.
Ivy- you are a complete genius! I can’t even begin to tell you how much everyone loved these bars.
This has three of my favourite flavours inside of it! Mark this one down for the future!
Jeff this is one for the keeper pile indeed!
I love the lemongrass in these lemon bars. Great idea! The coconut crust sounds delicious as well.
Hi BigFatBaker! Lemongrass is lovely to cook with and the crust, well, the crust stole my heart.
I love the idea of adding lemongrass to these bars. I am kicking myself now for putting back the lemongrass I picked up at a stall at the Farmers’ Market last week. Oh well, it gives me a good excuse to go back again this week.
Felice- lemongrass is the perfect excuse for getting back to the market! Plus it’s just so pretty.
I am not sure how I missed these in Bon App. Maybe because I am not a huge fan of lemon bars but these might change that.
Laura- I’ve never been a huge fan of lemon bars either, but these are a lovely rift on the classic.
Sarah, these look amazing. I’ll always pick shortbread if offered the biscuit barrel/cookie jar and the lemongrass sounds delicious. My mouth is watering but I’ll have to hold off making these as I’m off out for an umpteen-course meal and if I catch the scent of these, there’s no way I’d abstain.
Hester- that sounds like a good plan. We flew through two batches of these last weekend. I’m a shortbread fan myself and this crust is so incredible that I think I might have to try it out on its own. Thanks for stopping by!
Ha! I just made these a week or two ago myself. The crust is AMAZING!
They look and sound damn good!!
I’m sure that these are delicious! Did the lemongrass actually process well? I usually infuse it in dishes b/c I haven’t figured out a way to leave it in without the fibers sticking around. I’m excited to try these!
I was actually suprised at how well the lemongrass processed- after about a minute in the food processor it was almost completely incorportated into the sugar with no stringy fibers. Happy cooking!
These look amazing! What a clever idea using lemongrass to spice up standard lemon bars, and the coconut crust sounds fab!
So, I am in the process of making these, when I realized that the recipe is printed incorrectly. For the filling, it says to added powdered sugar as the last ingredient. The instructions call for flour. I had already added the powdered sugar when I realized. I checked a couple other sites for the correct ingredient and added the flour also. They are in the oven and smell wonderful – but I’m hoping the additional sugar doesn’t mess with the consistency or make them too sweet. Argh!
Hi Samantha- so sorry for the confusion! And thanks for finding the mistake- It should call for 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of powedered sugar for sprinkling at the end. I’ve submitted a note for the changes to be made.