Margarita Bars
Looking for the perfect dessert to serve at your Cinco de Mayo celebration or happy hour? Look no further than Margarita Bars! These delicious dessert bars are a fun twist on traditional lemon bars and pack a punch of lime flavor similar to my favorite cocktail. With a shortbread crust and a hint of tequila, they’re the adult dessert that will make your party a hit.
Ingredients needed for Margarita Bars:
- Powdered sugar
- Flour
- Butter
- Fresh lime juice
- Lime zest
- Orange juice
- Tequila
- Sugar
- Salt
Supplies needed for Margarita Bars:
- Large Bowl
- Food Processor (optional, you can also use an electric mixer)
- Wire Rack for cooling
- Spatula
- 8×8 pan
The Process:
To make these easy lime bars, start by preheating your oven to 350°F (175°C) and lining a square pan with parchment paper. In a mixing bowl combine flour, butter and powdered sugar until a crumbly dough forms. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan to make the crust, then bake until golden brown and set.
While the crust is baking, whisk together eggs, lime zest, lime juice, tequila, and orange juice in a large bowl until well combined. Pour the filling over the hot crust and bake until set with small bubbles on top.
Let the bars cool to room temperature before cutting into squares. For the perfect finishing touch, sprinkle the top with a little powdered sugar and flaky sea salt.
These Margarita Bars are the perfect sweet treat to share with friends and family at your next Cinco de Mayo party or happy hour. They’re also a great way to switch up your dessert game and try something new.
Store leftover bars in an airtight container and store for up to a week.
Other Cinco de Mayo themed recipes:
Margarita Bars
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons grated lime zest
- 2/3 cup fresh lime juice, from 6 limes
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 3 tablespoons tequila
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- flakey sea salt (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly spray an 8x8 -inch pan with cooking spray.
- In large bowl, mix butter and 1/4 cup powdered sugar, together with electric mixer. Add in the flour and pinch of salt on low speed, just until well combined. Press in pan. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until set and lightly browned.
- Meanwhile, in large bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar. Add in lime zest, lime juice, OJ and 1/2 tsp. salt . Whisk until smooth. Stir in tequila.
- Pour the lime mixture over partially baked crust. Bake 20-23 minutes longer or until center is set.
- Cool completely and then chill in fridge until ready to serve. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and a sprinkle of flakey sea salt and cut into bars. Store bars tightly covered in the fridge.
Notes
Optional - add a couple drops of green food coloring, I used natural food coloing which gave a subtle green look.
Note on pan size- I like a thick gooey filling and that was achieved with an 8x8 pan. If you want a thinner bar, double the crust portion and use a 9x13 pan!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
Perfect for cinco de mayo … or any day!! Love these so much.
How to adjust recipe for a 12 by 18 pan?
I would type the entire recipe into Chat GPT and ask “Can you convert this recipe to 12×8” It is such a useful tool for these types of questions. Let me know how it goes!
Alternately you could double the recipe for a 9×13 pan, just adjust the baking time.
Thanks!
I’m a margarita fan, as well. The little Mexican place on our corner makes amazing ones. But, I digress…. These look fantastic! I have toyed with this idea for ages but have just never gotten around to baking them. Now, I can just make yours! :-)
Eatable margaritas.. ? Brilliant.. :)
I love all of the amazing food that Cinco de Mayo brings. These are amazing, Audra…wish we could share one of these and a margarita together!
This looks SO delicious. I make key lime pie all the time, so I love fresh lime recipes. Love the margarita twist — very festive!
Such a cute, tasty and original idea for Cinco de Mayo! These look irresistible, Audra!
These bars are so pretty Audra, I’m loving the green color! Margaritas are definitely one of the best things about Cinco de Mayo :)
Who could resist a cocktail in the form of a baked good… Not me! They look wonderful.
Best idea ever. I love lemon bars, I love lime, and I love margaritas. Hooray for Cinco de Mayo!
Love how you turned lemon bars into margarita bars! You see so many margarita cupcakes out there (including my own today) that it’s fun to see other desserts turned into margarita flavors!
This is pure genius! And we must be on the same margarita wavelength today because I just posted Skinny Margarita Popsicles :) Can’t wait to try these!
These sound amazing, and perfect for Cinco De Mayo! I love the color – so pretty! Pinned :)
These look so refreshing. A must have.
Wonderful interview… so nice to get to know you better!
Such a genius idea! These would be the perfect sweet to end our Cinco De Mayo party…thanks for the inspiration!
xo, Elisa
Hey Audra,
These look great! Just out of curiousity, which type or brand of tequila did you use? I’m guessing a blanco just because you don’t want the flavor to be too overwhelming. Thanks!
Hey! I actually used Sauza Gold- and it’s really not a strong flavor once they bake :)
Can we form a homebody club? But without having to leave our homes? :-P
These are so pretty! And such a fun take on lemon bars (one of my favorite things in the whole world)
Just mixed these up and put them in the oven. The lime mixture was pretty watery….hope that is how it was supposed to be! Love lemon bars and this twist looks pretty amazing.
Do you think I could add a box of strawberry jello mix to the filling?
I baked these last night and brought them into my office this morning for Cinco de Mayo. They came out absolutely perfect and are a huge hit! Thank you!
Can the margarita bars be frozen??
I don’t see why not!
Don’t get the milk tho….
It helps make the filling creamy!
These look amazing! Is there a substitute for tequila that I could use? Or would that alter the flavor too much? Can you really taste the tequila? (I don’t have tequila, but would love to take these to work for cinco de mayo.)
You can just skip it! :)
Made these for a dinner party. They were a real hit. Used lime triangles for garnish. Thank you for sharing!
Why are they refrigerated? I always make lemon and orange bars and never refrigerated them.
I prefer them cold but you don’t have to serve them that way!
I made this today and it is SOOOOOO good! I used citrus tequila – an airplane bottle is just the right amount (ok a little was left so I just drank it hehe). I can’t stop thinking about eating more of it. These are going into my guest menu for desserts!! Thank you.
Why doo the ingridients say 2 cups of flour but instructions say 1 3/4 cup.
Thanks for that note- I will check
Did you just change the recipe? I saved it a couple days ago and now it appears different?! I believe the other one had milk in the filling? I am planning to make it for tomorrow and need to verify the pan size. 8×8 or 13×9? Thanks! Hope this new recipe is as good or better than the old one!
I did! Sorry for the confusion.
I only made 2 changes, the orange juice and the pan size. I decided I really liked the touch of orange when I tested the recipe this week. I also like a thicker crust and thicker filling so I chose to reduce the size. If you want to make in a 9×12 for a thinner bar you can!
They are in the oven now. I have got to learn to read the entire recipe through several times before I start baking! The pan size was confusing as you listed the smaller pan with parchment paper, then said to spray a 9 x 13. I went with the smaller pan as that is how I remember making lemon bars! I must have had very juicy limes, as it only took me 4, though I may have gotten a little too much juice! I forgot to add the salt in the base dough as it was not mentioned when adding ingredients .after in the recipe. The filling was very plentiful too! My kitchen smells amazing with all this lime zest! I also missed the part about adding green food coloring…Next time for sure
Thanks for that note about the mistake on the pan size- I will correct that!
Looks really awesome and delicious! Thanks for sharing.
These margarita bars are beyond delicious and so easy to make. Great recipe.
Margaritas and dessert bars? Yes, please. This was heaven. We used fresh limes and the flavor was wonderful.
How long can I keep these in the freezer for?
You could freeze these for up to a month. Let thaw at room temperature and sprinkle with powdered sugar/flakey salt right before serving
Loving the creative ideas for a margarita bar! I’m hosting a summer BBQ and think this is the perfect touch – thanks for the inspiration!
Is it whole eggs or egg yolks? Text here says yolks but recipe just says eggs! Might just be some extea filling but curious.
Hi- whole eggs- sorry for the confusion!
These Margarita Bars look absolutely delicious! I love the idea of combining the refreshing flavors of a margarita into a dessert. Can’t wait to try this recipe at my next gathering! ✨
These Margarita Bars look absolutely delicious! I love the combination of tangy lime and sweet undertones. Can’t wait to try making them for my next gathering! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
These Margarita Bars look absolutely delicious! I love the idea of combining the tangy flavors of lime with a sweet, creamy filling. Can’t wait to try this recipe for my next gathering – it’s perfect for summer! Thank you for sharing!
Oh my goodness. The flavor was GREAT. However, the recipe does not say to use parchment paper, and the bars stuck so bad to the pan. I mean REALLY bad. It was almost impossible to get them out.
Also, the filling was very watery, and I needed to increase cooking time by almost 10 minutes to get it to set. Even then, the bars were pretty impossible to hold together nicely because they were too soft and gooey. Suggestions?