Cosmopolitan Cocktail Bars with Anne from From My Sweet Heart {guest post}

COSMOPOLITAN COCKTAIL BARS 

with

Anne from From My Sweet Heart

You guys better sit down. I have such a treat for you! I invited a very special person to guest post on my blog today.  Meet Anne, the author of From My Sweet Heart blog. One of the sweetest, most talented and generous foodie bloggers out there. I stumbled upon Anne's blog one day and signed up for the updates right away. I didn't want to miss a single treat. Just from the recent posts, you will swoon over her genius Ambrosia Milkshake with Marshmallow Polka Dots! Anne's Pineapple Coconut Tarts are gorgeous and will melt your heart. My girls love her Pie Fries with Strawberry Ketchup. As huge fans of cheesecake, my Hubby and I adore Anne's Cherry Cheesecake with Chocolate Almond Crust. Loooove it!! I could go on and on but I will let Anne show you one of her amazing treats herself. I am absolutely thrilled to have her here today! Take it away, Anne!

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Hello Everyone!  I am so delighted to be a guest on Anna’s wonderful blog today!  I am in awe of all of Anna’s lovely desserts and amazing photography!  I especially love her Chocolate Chip Cookie Mondays and am looking forward to jumping in for the next Blue Ribbon Challenge!

The best thing about getting to know Anna is the ability to relate to a fellow baker!  I write a dessert/baking blog called From My Sweet Heart.  I am a fairly new blogger, just over a year now.  But it’s great to have found someone who enjoys baking and desserts as much as I do!

So when Anna invited me to be a guest here today, I was thrilled!  To me, it’s like having Anna invite me to her home!  And so, I wanted to make something special for her.  When looking through her recipes, I noticed that Anna enjoys cranberry and citrus (especially lime!).  And while she already provides the  Crunchy, Creamy and Sweet; I thought I might add a little Tangy, Tart and Gooey to the mix!  So I made some Cosmopolitan Cocktail Bars! 

These are sweet and tart with the flavors of cranberry, orange and lime!  They are nice and light and perfect for this time of year when thinking about refreshing cocktails; yet the cranberry flavor would carry them easily through the winter holidays. 

I hope you will enjoy them as much as I’ve enjoyed being here today!  Thank you Anna!

Cosmopolitan Cocktail Bars:

Yields 16-20 bars, depending on how you slice it!

 2 1/4 cups flour, divided
2/3 cup confectioner’s  sugar
2 tablespoons lime zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into pieces
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 can (6 ounces) frozen cranberry juice concentrate, thawed
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 tablespoon vodka (optional – I used it but could not really taste that it was there)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with foil (allowing some overlap to make handles) and spray generously with cooking spray.  Mix 2 cups of flour, confectioner’s sugar, lime zest, and salt in a large bowl.  Cut in the cold butter cubes with a pastry cutter until the mix resembles coarse crumbs.  Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of your baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges of the crust are lightly golden brown.
While your crust is baking, mix the eggs, granulated sugar, cranberry juice concentrate, the remaining ¼ cup of flour, the orange extract and the vodka (if using) in a bowl until well blended.  Pour this over your crust as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Return to the oven and bake an additional 24-28 minutes, until the filling is set.  Cool in the pan on a wire rack.  When ready to serve, use the foil to remove the bars from the pan.  Cut them into your desired size slices, sprinkle with a little confectioner’s sugar and some lime zest to garnish. 
A perfect smooth, tangy refreshing bite!

Slightly adapted from McCormick Spices

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Woah! Before you run to your kitchens to make these scrumptious looking bars, let me just tell you - I'm waaaay ahead of ya! :) I made these. Yesterday. O.M.G.! Heaven in my mouth! I knew Anne would make something amazing but this treat totally blew my mind. The lime and cranberry combo - it's my new favorite! Amazing how they complement each other atop the perfectly buttery crust. Thank you so much, sweet Anne! For the guest post, for the sweet words and for this treat.

You can find Anne's blog here and also follow her on Pinterest. 

xoxo,