May 20, 2016, posted by Gina – My youngest son will graduate from high school next week. My friend and I are hosting a dinner for our sons and their friends and families. We have divided up the cooking and all other party details. One of the recipes I’ll be making is Grand Marnier Custard Squares. These are just delicious and similar to a lemon square but oh so much better in my opinion.
You’ll notice there’s a bottle of Solerno instead of Grand Mariner in the photo of all the ingredients. At Christmas, I was out of Grand Marnier and sent my older son to get a new bottle for me. He returned with Solerno insisting that it was a wonderful orange liqueur and he was right.
First, you make the crust:
The next step is making the top layer. There is nothing more fragrant than zesting an orange and my house smelled so fresh as I was making these culinary delights.
The recipe calls for placing sugar and the orange zest in a food processor. Here you see it before processing and after, it’s a nice golden color:
Nest step, making the custard:
As if these bars aren’t already delicious, you spread icing on them which takes them over the top. Here are the finished bars:
This recipe came from the Junior League of Jackson’s, Come On In, a great cookbook that I highly recommend.
GRAND MARNIER CUSTARD SQUARES
Bottom Layer
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature.
Top Layer
1 ½ cups sugar
Zest of 3 oranges
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
6 large eggs
3 Tbs. orange juice
3 Tbs. Grand Marnier liqueur
1 tsp. orange extract
Icing
2 ½ cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tbs. Grand Marnier liqueur
3 Tbs. orange juice, or less
Preheat oven to 350°.
To prepare bottom layer, blend sugar, salt, flour and cut in butter. Spread mixture in buttered and floured 10 x 15 baking pan. Bake until very lightly browned, 20 minutes.
For the top layer, blend sugar and zest in food processor until zest is finely chopped. Mix in baking powder, salt, eggs, orange juice, Grand Marnier, and orange extract. Pour mixture over bottom layer in pan and bake until firm, 20 minutes. Allow to cool.
Prepare icing by blending powdered sugar and Grand Marnier with just enough orange juice to produce a spreadable consistency. Spread icing over cooled cake and cut into squares.
