Here is the lemon brownie enlightenment no one asked for, brought to you by the self proclaimed lemon brownie expert, yours truly! We all know what a lemon bar is. The one we all know and love has a lemon curd filling on a shortbread crust, possibly drizzled with lemon icing or sprinkled with powdered sugar. The lemon brownie is a whole different animal. Don’t mistake lemon brownies for lemon cake either. Lemon brownies contain white chocolate which gives them a rich, fudgy texture like their chocolate cousins. We may be tempted to call them blondies, but blondies have a butterscotch flavor and typically don’t contain chocolate. Now that we got that straightened out, we can sleep peacefully tonight.
I grew up with a big lemon tree in my backyard and I loved experimenting with lemons in cooking and baking. I also experimented my way to the perfect lemonade ratio. Raspberry lemonade was one of my family’s favorites. The raspberry lemonade brownie recipe I’m sharing here has that same sweet-tart flavor we enjoyed back then.
One of my favorite things about this recipe is that there is no electric mixer needed. You can literally execute this recipe with only a wooden spoon to stir it! My other favorite thing is the burst of flavor and color from the fresh raspberries. The icing contains no food coloring. Just three raspberries will give you that luscious shade of pink!
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bars
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- 6 ounces white chocolate, chopped I used Ghirardelli
- 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed
- 3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- zest of one lemon
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 eggs
- 1 3/4 cups (7 7/8 ounces) all purpose flour, sifted
- 1 cup fresh rasberries plus more for serving, if desired
- 3 fresh raspberries
- 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Ingredients
Raspberry Lemonade Bownies
Raspberry Lemonade Icing
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- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Line an *8 x 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium microwaveable bowl, heat white chocolate and butter in the microwave for 20 second intervals until melted. Alternately, melt white chocolate and butter on the stove in a double boiler.
- In a large bowl, combine melted chocolate and butter mixture, sugar, salt, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs. Stir until smooth.
- Add flour and stir just until combined.
- Gently fold in raspberries.
- Transfer mixture to prepared baking pan. Bake until top is set and edges are light golden brown, about 25-28 minutes.
- Let cool completely.
- In a small bowl, smash raspberries with a fork.
- Add powdered sugar, melted butter and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Whisk until smooth, adding more lemon juice as necessary.
- Spread icing over cooled brownies.
- Cut into 2-inch squares and serve with additional raspberries, if desired.
*To find the 8 x 8 inch pan I used, click here.