Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

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Don’t want to turn on your oven and bake?

These salty-and sweet bars are your saving grace.

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

The bars combine sweet with tart, smooth with crumbly, salty with sweet.

And you can knock them out in 15 minutes flat.

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

The best part of these freezer bars, in addition to being pink, is the use of one of my favorite ingredients, COOL WHIP Whipped Topping.

Copious amount of COOL WHIP in the freezer for a rainy day was totally normal in my household growing up.

This recipe is a play on something my mom used to make called Lemon Lush and when I saw this recipe on the Kraft site for No-Bake Raspberry-Lemon Bars, it got my wheels turning.

Container of Kraft Cool Whip

In addition to my love for the fluffy stuff, I love a good crumble topping. Actually, I am one of those people who picks off the crumble topping pieces from blueberry muffins or peach cobbler.

They are concentrated little balls of butter and sugar so of course that’s what I go for.

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

Except this crumb topping is not made from butter and sugar and flour.

It’s made from butter and sugar and Ritz crackers.

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

I have spring fever, badly. Maybe if I keep making frozen desserts spring and summer will arrive faster.

This is the type of refreshing dessert you want after a hard day at the beach.

Daughter Skylar on the beach

In between that beloved crumble topping and the buttery, slightly salty Ritz cracker crust is the tangy-yet-sweet COOL WHIP middle that’s fluffy without being airy.

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

Gather the goods.

Ingredients ritz, cool whip, condensed milk, pink lemonade concentrate

Place the crackers and powdered sugar into the cracker pulverizing container.

If you don’t have one of these or don’t have a food processor, place the crackers and sugar into a large ziptop bag and roll a glass or a rolling pin over it until you have crumbs.

Cool whip and ritz in blender

Or hit the power-on switch for about 5 seconds.

Blended ritz and cool whip

How do you make Ritz crackers better? You crush them and add butter and sugar.

Stir until it combines and a dough forms.

Egg and sugar in mixing bowl

Press slightly less than three-quarters of the dough into the prepared pan, reserving the remainder for the crumble topping.

Base layer of pink lemonade bar in pan

Crack the seal on the thawed container of COOL WHIP.

Cool whip open container

How do you make a can of pink lemonade juice concentrate become amazing?

Add a can of sweetened condensed milk and a container of COOL WHIP. That’ll do the trick.

pink lemonade and condensed milk mixture in bowl

Pour the pink mixture over the crust, add the crumb topping, and freeze.

Allow this to set up for at least four hours. While waiting, remember that patience is a virtue.

Finished bars in pan with crumble on top

The middle pink layer never quite freezes solid so you don’t have to struggle to slice it, yet it has a surprisingly long room temperature “shelf life” before it begins to melt.

Must be one of those magical properties of COOL WHIP.

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

I always go for that bite of softserve that is just slightly melty. This dessert tastes even creamier when it just begins to melt and is going to be my summertime go-to dessert.

Or my put-a-smile-on-my-family’s-face-in-a-hurry-dessert.

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars process

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4.34 from 3 votes

Pink Lemonade Freezer Bars

By Averie Sunshine
These easy, no-bake bars combine salty-and-sweet and are always a hit. Crushed Ritz crackers form the crust and topping, and the filling is a tartly sweet and creamy mixture of whipped topping and pink lemonade. The bars are cool, refreshing, and perfect on a warm day.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Additional Time: 3 hours 50 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours
Servings: 12
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Ingredients  

  • 120 crackers Ritz, about 3 cups crumbs
  • ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, heaping
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted (1 1/2 sticks)
  • one 12-ounce can pink lemonade concentrate, thawed to liquid
  • one 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
  • one 8-ounce container Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed to room temperature
  • red or pink food coloring, optional (I used about one dozen drops of red food coloring)

Instructions 

  • Line a 9-by-9-inch pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
  • Place the crackers and powdered sugar in a food processor or blender to pulverize. Alternatively, cracker-crushing can be done by hand by placing crackers into a large ziptop food storage bag, zipping it shut, and rolling over the bag with a large glass, coffee can, or rolling pin).
  • Place the cracker crumbs into a bowl, add the melted butter, and stir to combine.
  • Press a little less than 3/4 of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan, set the pan aside, and reserve the remaining 1/4 of the cracker crumbs.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine pink lemonade concentrate, sweetened condensed milk, and stir until combined.
  • Add the Cool Whip and stir until smooth.
  • If desired, add food coloring drops to desired shade and stir until color is uniform.
  • Pour the mixture over the crust, noting that you may have an extra half cup or so of the mixture depending on the height of your pan; do not overfill the pan. Use the extra mixture for a mini-tartlette, as a dip for fruit, or just eat it.
  • Top with the reserved cracker crumbs by sprinkling evenly 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 with a sheet of foil over the top. It will keep for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 386kcal, Carbohydrates: 51g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 46mg, Sodium: 154mg, Sugar: 40g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Related Recipes

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Pretzel Peanut Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles (with Vegan & GF options)

Pretzel Peanut Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, laced with pretzels, encased in chocolate, and topped with more pretzels.

Pretzel Peanut Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles halved

Compost Cookies – Chips of all kinds are included: Potato chips, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips. Sweet, a hint of salty, and full of texture.

Compost Cookies

 

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

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Comments

    1. Ugh how sad. Yes she sure did. I will contact her. Thank you for alerting me. It’s always amazing that there are no ethics left.

  1. I’d like to make this for a party, but we’re having a lot of people. Would this be easy to double and make in a 13 x 9 pan, or would you recommend two pans then? I could maybe do one in my 9 x 9 and one in my 8 x 8. Thanks!! Really wanting to make this for the weekend!

  2. I knew I’d like this, and I was right. I have a similar recipe in which you use a graham cracker pie crust, and we love that as well–but the salty crust was a nice touch–I like the contrast of flavors. I bet it would be tasty with limeade, too!

    1. I remember you telling me like LAST year that this was on your to-make-one-day list and glad you finally got around to these! Glad you’re happy and they were worth the wait….whew :)

      Limeade would be great with the salty/sweet aspect too I bet!

      1. I have about 20 women who make lots and lots of my recipes (and write to me to tell me about it) and you’re on that list and believe it or not, I actually can remember who’s husband doesn’t like nuts, who’s child won’t eat peanut butter, who loves lemon, etc. It’s how my brain works :)

  3. I made these last night. They were so easy! But after 4 hours they still were not set enough to cut, I had to scoop and plop. And the crust is so hard to get out of the pan without getting foil everywhere. I think they would work fine without the foil since the crust kind of pops out when it’s frozen. Also my pink lemonade concentrate was suuuuper tart so I’ll have to adjust for our taste next time. There WILL be a next time! I sound like I’m complaining but I’m not, promise! It’s a great recipe, just needs some tweaking to work for me. Also…your pictures are what made me want to try this…holy Ritz crumbs!

    1. Thanks for trying them and I use the thicker, higher quality Reynold’s and it works great but if it’s easier for you to not use it, do what’s easiest. And sounds like your concentrate and mine were fairly different given both the setting up time as well as the tartness but with baking, there’s always a few tweaks that need to be made. Glad you like the recipe and will make it again!

  4. This sounds like a wonder recipe, my family loves pink lemonade. I am wondering if you could add in bits of fruit like diced strawberry or kiwi? Or would be too weird?

  5. Can these be frozen longer? We are making some things for a mission trip fundraiser and they have to be frozen. How long is it good for?

    1. They can be frozen for months if you want. So yes, making ahead is fine. Not sure when you take them out of freezer how long they will stay cool if you’re going to be outside or in warm weather but the make-ahead part is fine!

  6. Yum! Averie, these look amazing! I’ve never seen Cool Whip over here in Australia though, does it taste like vanilla icing? Love the crunchy topping, mmmm… freezer bar goodness! Thanks for the beautiful recipe. Love the pictures too xx

    1. Cool Whip is like whipped cream that’s sweetened and stabilized so that it doesn’t fall/collapse like real whipped cream would after a couple hours. It’s more fluffy like whipped cream than it is like frosting (icing). Crazy you can’t get it there. I can even get Cool Whip in Aruba! You could make these with real whipped cream that you sweeten, but…beware, they will collapse as the cream deflates over time, which is unavoidable with whipped cream.

      1. Hm, I don’t think there’s anything similar to that here (in Western Australia… possibly the eastern states might stock it?). Do you think that adding half sweetened whipped cream and half cream cheese might work? It’d be a little more ‘cheesecakey’ but definitely more stable than the whipped cream alone. Darn it. Kraft needs to expand it’s Aussie product line!

  7. Okay first of all… we need to talk about how cute your little girlie is in those giant sunglasses. Completely flipping adorable!!!
    And second– thank you for sending me this recipe!!! LOVE IT. I am not likely to be hosting a sleepover anytime soon BUT! My momma has a birthday coming up and she is a lemon fanatic. These are gonna find their way to the dessert table no doubt!

    1. Glad you saw these and that you can work them into something coming up! And that pic was taken about 18 mos ago – she seems like such a little peanut there to me :)