Orange Creamsicle Bars

Sometime last year, I made some orange creamsicle cookies. I hadn’t thought a lot about how they would turn out, but they ended up being one of the best things that I made the entire year. It made a typical batch, but that was one of those cookies that I wished there would have been more to eat. Since then, I have been looking for a similar recipe. I came across these orange creamsicle bars, and knew I wanted to make them.

In looking at this recipe and when I made the bars, the recipe is similar to a cake bar. Just think of these as a cakey bar cookie, and I’m ok with that. They don’t require unusual ingredients, I just needed to pick up an orange at the store, which was easy. I have orange sanding sugar at home, as I use that with my favorite ginger cookies. These cookies use vegetable shortening, or vegan butter, or honestly you could use regular butter. You do melt it and then add all of the other ingredients, which is different for a cookie recipe.

When I baked the bars, the recipe suggested baking them between 20-30 minutes. I checked at 20 minutes, then added a few more, then two more in the end. They didn’t brown all that much, except around the edges, so that isn’t the best way to measure the doneness of these bars. Cutting these into squares, they are very much like cake, but work well as a bar cookie. They have a lovely soft texture, sweet but not too much, with a great orange flavor. These are simple and great for summer.

Orange Creamsicle Bars
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 ½ tablespoons orange juice
1 cup white chocolate chips
Orange sanding sugar

½ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the vegetable shortening and then transfer the shortening to a large mixer bowl. Add the sugar, eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, orange zest, and orange juice to the bowl and mix on medium to combine. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the white chocolate chips with a spatula. The mixture will be thin.

Spread the mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with orange sanding sugar.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the bars comes out clean.

Once the bars are cool, lift them from the pan using the foil. Whisk the powdered sugar and orange juice until smooth and drizzle over the bars. Allow the glaze to set before cutting into bars.

Recipe from The Monday Box