Orange Burst Bars

Around our house, we buy lots of fruit.  Lots and lots of fruit.  Most of it gets eaten right away, or at least in a timely fashion.  But for some reason, we get bored with oranges or clementines.  We can go through pounds and pounds of them, and then one day I realize the same 3 clementines have been in the fruit bowl for over a week.  And at that point, NO one is going to eat them.

Now they aren't like bananas that I can throw in the freezer for smoothies or bread.  And it's not like apples that can be diced and put into oatmeal.  But years ago I found a recipe for Orange Burst Bars.  They are a lot like lemon bars.....but orange.  There is a yummy shortbread crust, and then a topping made from eggs, sugar, a little flour and whole oranges!  I do cut up the orange to make sure there are no seeds in there, but my kids (my little boys especially) have LOVED putting a whole (or half) orange in the blender and watching it get all chewed up.  It's a very simple recipe, too.  So any time I have a few old, dried out oranges in that fruit bowl, we get these bars.  You could actually use fresh oranges too!

Orange Burst Bars

Combine:

1 c melted butter

1/2 c powdered sugar

2 c flour

And pour into a 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, in a blender, combine:

4 eggs

1 1/4 c sugar (I used 1 c honey today...YUM!)

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 c flour

2 small or 1 1/2 medium oranges

Pour orange mixture over crust and bake an additional 20-25 minutes.  Just like Lemon Bars, you could sprinkle the top with additional powdered sugar.  Or I think some kind of chocolate drizzle would be awesome too!