Raspberry Meringue Bars
Smooth, tart raspberry curd on a buttery, lemon shortbread covered in a billowing cloud of raspberry meringue.
If you’ve made any of my curd bars before (blueberry, cranberry or maybe even the lemon meringue bars) much of this recipe will be very familiar. It uses my raspberry curd recipe and a lemon zesty shortbread base (just like the bars).
What’s new is the meringue, AH THE MERINGUE. I can’t wait for you to taste it!
I wanted to make these last year after I posted my raspberry curd recipe but then I just went with a raspberry meringue pie that had a traditional swiss vanilla meringue on top. This time, I aimed to amp it up with a meringue that was a bit more special, something that was also flavorful and.. Pink!
Raspberry Curd Ingredients
Most of the information you’ll need for the curd recipe will be on the raspberry curd page. Just a heads up, it’s best to use frozen raspberries to make the curd not fresh.
The only case I’d use fresh raspberries to make the curd is if I had freshly farm picked raspberries that were dark in color and going a bit soft.
Frozen is better for this curd because the frozen berries are picked when they are very ripe, they’ll give you a vibrant pink color and taste both sweet and tart.
Raspberry Meringue Ingredients
Freeze dried raspberries
These are sold either in the cereal or nut section of the grocery store. The berries have had all their juices removed and what remains is just a very dry berry.
No substitutes for this. In theory you could make your own raspberry juice with very ripe, fresh raspberries but I’m thinking the freeze dried berries are more accessible to all and year round.
Sugar
Fine granulated sugar. If your granules are larger than sand bits, grind the sugar in a food processor first.
Egg whites
Should be fresh, no more than 2-3 days old or they won’t whip up well. It’s SO important that there are no egg yellows in this which will mess up the structure of the meringue.
How to make the Raspberry Meringue
Grind up some freeze dried berries & remove the seeds
Do this in a food processor or a blender, you want to get the berries into a powder. No need to remove the seeds just yet, we’ll do that later.
Make raspberry ‘juice’
We’ll add some of the raspberry powder to water, shake it and leave it so it dissolves. Now we’ve got ‘raspberry flavored’ water which is what we’ll use to make the meringue!
Make an Italian Meringue
To make an italian meringue you’ll boil together the sugar and water (we’ll remove the seeds and bigger bits from the water before using).
Once the sugar and water reaches the candy point on the thermometer, we can slowly pour it into already whipping egg whites.
Then you’ll whip it all together for about 7 minutes, until the meringue hits stiff peaks.
How do I know when the curd is done baking?
When you shake the pan in the oven it should just jiggle a bit in the center, the sides will be firm and set.
How far ahead can I make these raspberry meringue bars?
The shortbread with the curd baked on top will last in the fridge for a few days so this can be made ahead of rime. The meringue however is trickier, and should be made the day of serving. You can store meringue topped bars in the fridge for about 2-4 hours but more than that and it will begin to separate.
Occasionally I store my meringue topped pies and bars in the freezer but this does change the texture somewhat.
Double Raspberry Meringue Bars
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- 160g or 1 cup plus ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 50g or ½ cup granulated sugar
- 25g or ¼ cup powdered sugar
- Zest of a lemon
- 140g butter unsalted, cold and sliced
- Raspberry Curd recipe here
Raspberry Meringue
- 120g or ½ cup water
- 3 tablespoons raspberry powder from ground freeze dried raspberries
- 140g or ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 3 large egg whites
- Pinch fine sea salt
Method
- Either have the curd made and ready to go before you begin or prepare to work fairly quickly while the crust bakes (it’ll be ready for the curd after a 20 minute bake).
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Line a greased 8x8 square pan with parchment paper. Add some metal clips to hold the paper in place.
To make the crust
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor and pulse on high until it comes together. Press into the bottom of the pan, use the back of a spoon or an offset spatula to smooth it out into an even line.
Bake the bars
- Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes then take it out of the oven and pour the raspberry curd over it. Return it to the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the curd layer only wobbles in the center and is set on the sides.
- Let the bars come to room temperature on the counter. Set in the fridge to chill for about 4 hours or overnight (they’ll keep like this for a few days).
Make the meringue
- Grind about ½ cup freeze dried raspberries in a food processor or blender. Ensure you have 3 tablespoons of powder and add it to a jar with ½ cup of water. Seal the jar and shake it to mix. Let sit for at least an hour or up to 4. This dissolves the powder into the water.
- After an hour or so, pour the raspberry water through a fine mesh sieve into a ⅓ cup measuring cup - pressing the seeds through to get every last drop. It should nearly fill the cup, add some water to get the liquid to fill the cup.
- Pour into a small pot and add the sugar. Stir then turn the heat to medium low. Keep a thermometer nearby.
- Add the egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer and attach the whisk. Begin whisking until the eggs are a bit frothy, they should still be liquid on the bottom but there will be bubbles on top.
- Cook the sugar & raspberry mix until a thermometer reads 245 F. Once it does, turn off the heat and set the pan off the heat for just a minute.
- Turn the mixer on again and pour the liquid, slowly over the egg whites as they whip. Scrape down the bowl and then turn the mixer onto medium high. Whip - adding the pinch of salt and a dash of vanilla as you do - until you have a thick, glossy meringue that holds shape when you turn the whisk upside down.
- Spread the meringue over the curd. You can set it in the fridge until it's time to serve.
- Right before serving, toast the meringue with a kitchen torch, get it nicely browned all over.
- To serve, run a chef’s knife under hot water until it’s warm. Wipe it dry then slice the bars.
Did you make this recipe?
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I made the bars yesterday. I found the curd was way too sweet and ruin the raspberry flavor. The shortbread is too dense. Also, the lemon juice and zest was overpowering in the curd. I had a lot of comments asking if the bars were lemon.
Very sorry to hear it Steph. I do make a dense shortbread for pie like crusts, it’s so they won’t be very crumbly when you slice. Re: the lemon flavor, I have also found that to be an issue when I use rather flavorless raspberries. I am thinking about reducing the lemon in that recipe to hopefully accommodate such berries
Could I use boxed egg whites for this recipe?
i’ve never tried it. Most sources say not to but I know one blogger who says it works great. So, idk!
These were AMAZING. The tartness from the raspberries is balanced so well with the richness of the shortbread and the meringue was so light and airy. There isn’t a single thing I would change and I will 100% be making these again!