Mango Strawberry Macadamia Nut Shortbread Bars and the 4th of July in Hawaii

Mango Strawberry Macadamia Nut Shortbread Bars

Similar to a lemon bar, these mango strawberry bars really need a good chilling overnight. I wouldn’t bother dusting them with powdered sugar, as it will obscure the gorgeous neon colors that the mango and strawberry curd make, but I’ll leave it up to you. The hardest part of making these bars is that you have to cook the curd ahead of time, unlike a lemon bar where you can just pour the curd on uncooked and let the oven do the work. The reason you cook the curd ahead of time is so that the curd is thick enough to swirl together on top of the shortbread. Be sure to let the bars sit overnight in the fridge, or they’ll be a mess when you cut and serve them.

Strawberry Curd Filling
450 g (1 lb) strawberries, hulled and chopped fine
100 g (1 cup) white granulated sugar
2 large eggs
38 g (1/4 cup) all purpose flour
55 g (4 tablespoons) salted butter

Mango Curd Filling
450 g (1lb) Mango, about 1 medium mango, pit and skin removed and flesh chopped
100 g (1/2 cup) white granulated sugar
60 g (1/4 cup) fresh squeezed lemon juice, about 1 medium lemon
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean

Macadamia Nut Shortbread
225 g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose unbleached white flour
55 g (1/2 cup) confectioners’ sugar
170 g (1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup) salted butter (if you only have unsalted, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt) at room temperature
80 g (1/2 cup) Macademia nuts, roughly chopped to 1/4” pieces

1. Make the strawberry filling by combining the strawberries and sugar together and cooking them in a medium pot on high heat, until the strawberries start to fall apart. Remove from heat and move them to a nonreactive metal bowl snuggly fit over a pot with a small bit of water in it (make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water). Add the eggs and flour to the bowl and cook in the double boiler with the water simmering, continually whisking the strawberry curd until thick, about 6 to 8 minute. Remove from heat and press curd through a fine meshed sieve. Add the salted butter to it, stirring to melt and incorporate. Set aside to cool.

2. Make the mango filling by combining the mango and sugar together and cooking them in a medium pot on high heat, until the mangoes start to fall apart. Remove from heat and move them to a nonreactive metal bowl snuggly fit over a pot with a small bit of water in it (make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water). Add the lemon juice, egg yolks, egg, salt into the metal bowl. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the mixture. Cook in the double boiler with the water simmering, continually whisking the mango curd until thick, about 6 to 8 minutes or so. Remove from heat and press curd through a fine meshed sieve. Set aside to cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Lightly coat a 9” x 13” baking pan with cooking spray, and then line with parchment paper, allowing for the paper to overhang by a few inches (the cooking spray will help the paper stick to the pan).

4. Place the flour into a medium size mixing bowl. Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a bowl, breaking up any lumps. Using a wire balloon whisk, vigorously stir the flour and sugar together until they are evenly distributed. Cut up the butter into 1/4” cubes and sprinkle into the bowl. Using your hands, mix the flour and butter together, squeezing the butter and dry ingredients together until a smooth dough starts to form. Add the chopped macadamia nuts and squeeze them in by hand until evenly incorporated and you have a smooth dough.

Toss the butter in the dry ingredients first.

Squeeze the dough together with the butter.

Once you’ve added the chopped macadamia nuts, your dough should look like this.

5. Press the dough into the baking pan with the parchment paper. You want to spread the dough evenly on the bottom and up the sides ever so slightly (about 1/4” to 1/2” if you can). You can use the bottom of a flat drinking cup to just flatten out the dough all the way around to help facilitate even baking. Line the crust with parchment paper again, and then fill with dry beans, dry rice or pie weights if you have them. If you happen to be staying at a not as well equipped condo kitchen, you can do what I do, and put some old butter knives over the parchment paper to bake. Bake the crust in the oven for about 25 to 35 minutes or until the crust is a deep golden brown, rotating halfway through to make sure the crust bakes evenly.

Who needs pie weights or dry beans when you can use butter knives?

6. Reduce the oven temperature to 300˚F. Remove the parchment paper (with the weights/knives inside) and then pour the mango curd onto the hot crust. Then spoon the strawberry curd on top of the mango curd randomly. Take a knife (make sure it’s a cold one, not the one you just baked in the oven) or the handle of a spoon or fork (because you might have forgotten to save a knife to do it, and had baked all of them) and swirl the curd around decoratively. Place back in the oven and bake for an additional 25 minutes or until the sides of the pan look dry and stiff, and only the center of the pan is a little wobbly (but not too much). Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight to set up.

Pour the mango curd onto the hot crust.

Spoon the strawberry curd in dollops over the mango curd.

Swirl decoratively with a knife or the handle of a spoon.

Pull the bars out and let cool to room temperature before refrigerating overnight.

7. Once the bars have set, grab the sides of the parchment paper and pull straight up and move the bars to a cutting board. Cut and serve to your new friends at a party and wait for the compliments to come in.