Lemon bars are a refreshing dessert! A crisp, buttery shortbread crust with a sweet and tart lemon filling dusted in powdered sugar. If you love lemon desserts, these are the best lemon bars to try! Perfect for potlucks, picnics, and just because!
Ingredients for Lemon Bars
Shortbread crust
- All-purpose flour – Regular, all-purpose flour works perfectly to create a delicious shortbread crust.
- Powdered sugar – Powdered sugar adds a touch of sweetness to the crust.
- Salt – Salt enhances the flavor of the shortbread.
- Unsalted butter – The butter should be at room temperature. I recommend cutting the butter into cubes so it is easily mixed into the flour. If you have salted butter, go ahead and use it! Just omit the additional salt.
Lemon filling
- Granulated sugar – Granulated sugar adds sweetness to contrast the tartness of the lemon.
- All-purpose flour – A bit of all-purpose flour helps thicken the lemon filling.
- Lemon zest – Lemon zest adds great lemon flavor. You can use a zester or a very fine hand grater. Zest before you juice! One tablespoon of zest usually is about the zest of two lemons.
- Lemon juice – Fresh is certainly best here! Be sure to zest the lemons before you juice them! For this recipe, I used about three lemons to get 1/2 cup of juice.
- Eggs – Room temperature eggs! The eggs help create a thick, lemon curd filling.
Tools & Supplies for Making Lemon Bars
How to Make Lemon Bars
Shortbread crust
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare an 8×8 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and parchment paper
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, salt, and cubed unsalted butter. Mix on low speed with an electric mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until the mixture becomes crumbly.
- Pour the crumbly mixture into the prepared baking pan. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan using a flat-bottomed measuring cup to create an even crust.
- Bake the shortbread crust for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool while making the filling.
While you are letting the crust cool, lower the oven temperature to 325° F and prepare the filling.
Lemon filling
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, and eggs.
- Pour the lemon filling on top of the cooled shortbread crust.
- Bake the lemon bars for approximately 20-25 minutes until the lemon filling is set and does not jiggle in the center.
- Remove from the oven, place the pan on a wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- To serve, remove the lemon bars from the pan and cut into squares. Add a dusting of powdered sugar, if desired.
Lemon Bars Recipe Tips
Preparing the baking pan
To easily remove the lemon bars from the pan, I recommend lining the pan with parchment paper. Cut two pieces of paper to the width of the pan. Spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray and place the parchment paper in a cross shape so that it goes up the sides of the pan. Once the bars are baked and cooled, simply pull up on the parchment paper to remove the lemon bars!
Lemons
The star of this recipe is the bright, tart lemon flavor, so freshly squeezed is best! Be sure to zest the lemons before you juice them! To easily juice the lemons, first press and roll the lemons on your countertop to get the juices flowing! And watch out for seeds! You can juice the lemons through a strainer to catch any rogue seeds.
Baking at different temperatures
The shortbread crust and lemon filling are baked at two different temperatures. This is not a mistake! The shortbread crust bakes at 350 degrees and after the lemon filling is added, it is baked at 325 degrees. The lower temperature prevents the lemon filling from browning on the sides and the top.
Storing
Store the lemon bars in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to three days. To serve, sprinkle powdered sugar over the top. I recommend adding the powdered sugar before serving to prevent the sugar from dissolving.
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Lemon Bars
Equipment
- 8×8 baking pan lined with parchment paper
- Stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or electric hand mixer
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature and cubed
Lemon Filling
- 1¼ cups granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- ½ cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 3 eggs room temperature
Additional Ingredients
- ¼ cup powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
Shortbread Crust
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare an 8×8 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and parchment paper on the bottom and sides of the pan.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, salt, and cubed unsalted butter. Mix on low speed with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until the mixture becomes crumbly.
- Pour the crumbly mixture into the prepared baking pan. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan using a flat-bottomed measuring cup to create an even crust.
- Bake the shortbread crust for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool while making the filling.
Lemon Filling
- Lower the oven temperature to 325° F.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, and eggs. Whisk until well combined and smooth. The lemon filling will be thin.
- Pour the lemon filling on top of the shortbread crust.
- Bake the lemon bars for approximately 20-25 minutes until the lemon filling is set and does not jiggle in the center.
- Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- To serve, remove the lemon bars from the pan and cut into squares. Add a dusting of powdered sugar, if desired.
Notes
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Comments & Reviews
These were perfect! I’ve been looking for a great and easy lemon bar recipe and this one takes the cake!
Amazing! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you so much for trying it out and for your positive review and comment 🙂
Can this be doubled?
It can, yes. You can click on the “2x” in the recipe to double the ingredients. 🙂