I was a space cadet and forgot to take a picture.
Take my word for it that they looked similar to the ones over at Averie Cooks.
The original recipe calls for pink lemonade, but I used raspberry lemonade instead. We prefer raspberry lemonade to regular lemonade in our house. I'm not sure that was the best substitution though. I think the raspberry cut into some of the tartness that was needed to offset the sweetness.
As I was preparing this dish I was really afraid it would be too sweet. I gave the batter a test taste as I was preparing it and wow. Was it ever sweet. Freezing things tends to lessen the intensity of thinks like sweetness, so I was holding out for that. That did help, but I think this dish was still a bit over the top.
Of course the sweetness didn't stop us from eating the leftovers. We muddled through, making that sacrifice. Ok. In all honesty the bars were actually pretty good, it's just that they could have been better. I liked the saltiness of the crust. I cut the sugar in the crust by half, and next time I'd omit it. The desert is sweet enough, the crust is fine without it. If I were to make this dessert again, I think using concentrated limeade would be fun to try out.
Pink Raspberry Lemonade Bars adapted from Averie Cooks
2 1/2 sleeves of Ritz Crackers (about 3 cups of crumbs)
3/4 c butter, melted (1 1/2 sticks)
1 12-ounce can raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed to liquid
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 8-ounce container COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed to room temperature
red or pink food coloring, optional (I used about one dozen drops of neon pink food coloring)
Line a 8x8 or 9x9" pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. (I used 8x8.) Place crackers in food processor/blender and pulverize. Place crumbs in bowl, add melted butter, and stir . Press a little less than 3/4 of mixture into bottom of prepared pan, set pan aside, and reserve remaining 1/4 crumbs.
In a lg bowl, combine lemonade concentrate, condensed milk. Add COOL WHIP. If desired, add food coloring drops to desired shade and stir until color is uniform. Pour mixture over crust, noting that you may have extra mixture depending on the height of the pan; do not overfill the pan. Use extra mixture for a mini-tartlette, fruit dip, or just eat it. Top mixture with the remaining cracker crumbs by sprinkling them over the top. Place pan into the freezer to set up for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving. Store extra dessert in the freezer.
glad you gave it a try and yes the pink lemonade does really cut the sweetness but still it IS a very sweet dessert...fun for special times when you need something easy and cool/nobake :)
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