Creamy orange filling sandwiched between two layers of sweet, crumbly streusel. This must-try dessert from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate is sure to brighten your day!

While my husband and I are both huge fans of chocolate desserts, I also like to bake with ingredients depending on the season and my cravings. In the spring, I love strawberry desserts; in the summer, I tend towards berry desserts; and in the fall, I bake with pumpkin. In the winter, I’m all about citrus desserts: lemon bars, grapefruit pound cake, orange creamsicle muffins, you name it. I love them all!

While I love a good lemon bar, I decided to switch things up a bit by using orange juice and orange zest.

These bars are pretty simple to make and they’re so, so good. If you like citrus desserts, you are going to love these. The crust layer and crumb topping are actually the same dough. You just press half of it into the bottom and sprinkle the other half on top. This completely solves my issue with crumb toppings, which is that usually by the time I get to making the crumb topping, I just don’t want to. In this recipe, it’s already been made!

Then there’s the filling, which has just three ingredients: sweetened condensed milk, orange zest and orange juice. Could we say just two ingredients since the zest and juice both come from the same orange? Probably.

Pop them in the oven for a half hour, let them cool and you’re on your way to creamy orange bar heaven.

I think the reason I love citrus desserts so much in the winter is because for one, they’re in season. So, duh. Also, they are so bright and cheery. So on those days when I think I just can’t take one more dreary winter day, I whip up something citrusy and it kind of makes me cheery again. Or maybe it’s just the sugar that makes me happy. There’s no telling. Regardless, these Creamy Orange Bars are a ray of sunshine on any kind of day!