I adore this recipe for Lemon Bars. It's a tender shortbread crust, topped with lots of flavorful, nicely tart, not-too-sweet lemon curd. I pull it out every spring, because it's the most cheerful dessert I can think of.
They're so bright, citrusy, and creamy. The butter shortbread is rich and tender, but the extra-thick layer of sweet-tart lemon is very clearly the star of the dessert.
With just 7 ingredients, they're easy to make. And I love that one batch of lemon bars is plenty to share, making it great for any kind of brunch or spring party you may go to.
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I've made these lemon bars several times. I first made them as part of my 365 Recipe Challenge in 2010 when I started this blog, and several times afterward. (I won 3rd place at a picnic for them, giving me cookie cutters and sprinkles as a prize!) I've made several slight revisions to them since, and my instructions now are the clearest ones yet.
I've adapted this recipe from the Lemon Bars recipe from Smitten Kitchen, who got it from Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (affiliate link), although it doesn't appear in my copy of the cookbook.
Ingredients
Lemon bars have a shortbread crust, topped by a lemon layer that you bake onto it. You only have a few ingredients, but you use a lot of each one!
- Flour
- Sugar
- Butter
- Eggs
- Lemons
- A tiny bit of salt
- Powdered sugar (not pictured)
All-purpose flour goes into both the shortbread crust and the filling.
Granulated sugar goes into both the shortbread crust and the filling. The lemon is very bright and tart, so you need plenty of sugar in both to balance it.
Butter makes the shortbread rich and balances the sugar and lemon. Neither margarine nor shortening will be as flavorful, and may not bake the same. Don't use salted butter, as it will be too salty. Instead, we add a dash of salt for balance.
Ina Garten uses extra-large eggs in most of her recipes, but I (like many people) use large eggs. You'll need 7 of them; this is around 350 grams by weight. In addition to providing the creamy texture you expect from lemon bars, the eggs also thicken the filling, alongside the flour.
You use both lemon zest and lemon juice in this recipe. Lemon sizes vary dramatically, so you'll want to measure the amounts of zest and juice, rather than rely on how many lemons you have. Keep a couple of extra lemons on hand in case you need them; if you have some left, try making my recipe for Salmon with Baked Couscous.
Powdered sugar isn't pictured, but is recommended as a garnish to make your lemon bars pretty.
Instructions
Start by softening a few ingredients an hour before you start baking. Pull out butter, eggs, and lemons. Butter and eggs beat better when they're at room temperature, and room temperature lemons yield more juice than cold ones do.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a handheld mixer), cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add flour and salt. Stir on low until combined and it clumps together.
- Dump the shortbread dough into a parchment-lined or well-greased metal 9x13 inch pan. Press it gently but firmly along the bottom and up the sides to form a ½-inch crust. Stick in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven.
- Bake chilled crust for 15-20 minutes, until very lightly browned. There's a chance it may not brown. That's ok.
Freezing the crust is incredibly important. My shortbread edges always sink in if I don't, and especially if I skimp on the flour.
Although it's ideal if the crust can cool for a few minutes before you add the filling, it's not essential. So start preparing your filling while the crust bakes.
- Before you juice the lemons, zest them. You want around 2 tablespoons of zest. After you've zested the lemons, juice them.
- Whisk together the flour and sugar in a very large mixing bowl. This helps prevent lumps. Then add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and eggs, and whisk until well combined.
- Pour the lemon filling batter into your prebaked shortbread crust. It's ok if the crust is still warm. Don't get the filling above the crust's rim, even though I did that here.
- Bake the lemon bars for 30-35 minutes, until filling is set. Filling will not jiggle and will no longer be shiny.
Cool the lemon bars at room temperature.
Once your lemon bars are cooled, cut them into squares and dust them with powdered sugar. I usually cut them into 24, but 48 rectangles is a great amount if you're taking them to a potluck.
Hint: Don't fill the lemon bars over the edge of the shortbread crust. The filling will burn directly against the hot metal pan, and will be rubbery if it bakes as a thin layer over the sunken edge crust. I have tips in the FAQ if you have to hold back some filling.
Substitutions
I don't recommend making substitutions to this recipe.
Eggs thicken the filling, and provide texture. If you want an egg-free recipe, you'll want to find a recipe for vegan lemon bars.
Although I suspect you could use a gluten-free flour blend in the shortbread crust, I haven't tested it. However, flour also thickens the filling. If you need to be wheat- or gluten-free, I recommend finding a dedicated gluten-free recipe.
Lemon zest provides a lot of flavor. The bars will turn out if you don't quite have enough, but you do need to include it. I expect that you could also add other citrus zest if needed, but I haven't tested that.
Fresh lemon juice is likewise essential. If you run short, I expect that you can supplement with other fresh juice; you may need to adjust the sugar.
Do not use bottled lemon juice. I do use it to season food, but never as a main ingredient. It has preservatives and an off-taste that will ruin your dessert. You can add up to a tablespoon or two of bottled juice if you run short (and I have before), but no more than that.
Equipment
Making shortbread is much easier if you have a Kitchenaid stand mixer (affiliate link) or handheld mixer. That said, you can make the dough using your hands and very well softened butter.
I strongly recommend using a citrus juicer to make this recipe.
You can use a hand-held citrus juicer (affiliate link) or an electric citrus juicer (affiliate link). I recommend an electric juicer since you need so much juice. It took a while when I tried to use my hand-held juicer. (Once you have a juicer of either kind, you can use it to make my Classic Margarita recipe)!
I hacked juicing citrus with a bullet blender (affiliate link) once before I had a juicer, though! After you zest your lemons, peel them, put them in the blender, blend them, and press them through a sieve to keep the pulp out. However, your results won't be quite the same.
Although you can use any kind of grater to zest lemon, I highly recommend a Microplane zester (affiliate link); it has always worked better than anything else I've used. Always zest your citrus before you juice it.
I always use a well-greased, metal 9x13-inch pan (affiliate link) to bake these in. Don't use anything dark, as it can cause the crust to overbake. If that's all you have, I recommend you use parchment paper to keep your bars from sticking, and which allows you to pull them from the pan for cutting.
If all you have is a glass pan, line it with parchment, and do not freeze or chill the crust; the glass pan may break when going from freezer to hot oven. Commit yourself to checking for a sunken crust halfway through prebake time.
I assume you've got a wire whisk (affiliate link) in your kitchen. It's the best tool to sift together the flour and sugar before you make the filling, as well as to beat the eggs.
The crust is a little hard to cut through sometimes, so I prefer using a bench scraper (affiliate link) to press straight down through the shortbread, rather than sawing it with a knife. The bench scraper also cuts in very neat, straight lines.
Storage
As an egg-based dessert, you should store lemon bars, covered, in the refrigerator. Pull them out 5-10 minutes before serving as they're at their most delicious at room temperature.
Powdered sugar sprinkled on the lemon bars will dissolve over time. Dust them again before serving to make them prettier.
Lemon bars are optimal in the first 3 days, but we still eat and enjoy them for a few days after that.
Top Tip
Don't overbake the lemon bars! Since the filling has so many eggs, overbaked lemon bars will be a bit rubbery.
FAQ
While I suspect that you could use gluten-free flour in the shortbread crust, it would not function the same way in the filling. I recommend finding a dedicated gluten-free lemon bar recipe if you need to eat wheat-free or gluten-free.
Since this recipe takes so many eggs, and eggs provide both texture and thickening for the filling, I do not recommend substitutions. If you must avoid eggs, I recommend finding a dedicated vegan or egg-free lemon bar recipe.
A juicer is the most effective way to juice lemons. Both handheld and electric juicers work; however, the electric juicer will be faster and easier to use.
In a pinch, I've used a bullet blender to maximize how much juice I get from citrus, although it's not ideal. Zest your lemons, peel them, blend the pulp, then strain the pulp.
Bottled lemon juice has preservatives and an off-taste that will make lemon bars unpleasant. Although I do use bottled juice for accents in cooking, I never use it as a main flavor. In a pinch, you can use 1-2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice to supplement your fresh juice if you run out. Otherwise, if you end up not having enough lemons to yield 1 cup of juice, I recommend you substitute other fresh citrus instead, or blending and straining the pulp to try to eke out a little more juice.
Freezing your crust before you bake it is a precaution against your crust sinking while it bakes, but it's not foolproof. Sometimes this will happen if you use too little flour in your shortbread.
I recommend checking your shortbread crust after 10 minutes of prebaking time. If you find that it's sinking, use a fork to press and pat the dough back up the sides to form the edge crust. If this develops holes along the bottom, use the fork to pat the dough along to fill them in. Return the crust to the oven, and add a couple of extra minutes to the total baking time.
It's not a pleasant or pretty process, but you want that edge crust to keep your edge filling from being rubbery.
If your crust has sunk while you prebaked it, or you just didn't the crust edge tall enough, pour only enough lemon filling into the shortbread crust to come up to the very top edge. Do not overfill, or cover the edge crust. Thin filling over the edge crust will burn along the edges and turn rubbery.
You will need to check the thinner layer sooner for doneness.
I've made a crumb crust in a mini pie plate, and filled it with leftover filling. If you choose to do that, bake it along with the lemon bars, until it's done in the middle.
Lemon bars (and other egg-based, custardy desserts) are done when the filling looks set. It will not jiggle, and the top will not be shiny. The filling color will also be paler than when you put it in the oven.
🍋 Other Citrus Treats
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📖 Recipe
Lemon Bars
Equipment
- citrus juicer
- Microplane zester (affiliate link)
- wire whisk (affiliate link)
- 9x13 inch pan metal
Ingredients
Crust
- 16 tablespoons butter (227 grams/2 sticks, at room temperature)
- ½ cup sugar (100 grams)
- 2 cups flour (270 grams)
- 1/16 teaspoon table salt (a dash if you don't want to measure that little)
Filling
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (from 2 large lemons, or 4-6 smaller ones)
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (227 grams; from 4-6 lemons, depending on size)
- 7 large eggs (350 grams; at room temperature)
- 2 ½ cups sugar (500 grams)
- 1 cup flour (130 grams)
- powdered sugar for topping
Instructions
Crust
- Line a metal 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper, covering the bottom and sides, or grease your pan very well.
- Cream softened butter and ½ cup sugar until light and fluffy with a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add 2 cups flour and salt, and mix at low speed until just combined.
- Scrape dough into the prepared pan. Press it gently but firmly along the bottom and up the sides of the pan to form a ½-inch edge.
- Freeze the crust for 15 minutes while you heat the oven to 350F.
- Bake chilled crust at 350F for 15-20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Check halfway through to be sure the sides aren't sinking; see notes if they are.
- Set aside to cool for a few minutes, but no need to cool completely.
Filling and Assembly
- While your crust is baking, prepare the filling. Zest your lemons into your mixing bowl, if you haven't already.
- Cut your zested lemons in half and juice them, preferably with an electric juicer.
- Use a wire whisk (affiliate link) to mix together the sugar and flour. This will help prevent lumps.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and eggs. Whisk well to combine. Pour into the prebaked crust. Do not overfill.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until filling is set. It will look not as shiny. Filling will not jiggle when done, and will be paler than it was. Do not overbake.
- Cool at room temperature. Dust with powdered sugar, and cut into small bars.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Notes
[Published and revised in 2010, April 2017, May 2022. Completely rewritten and updated March 2025.]
Jenn says
These are simply delicious. My husband said they are the best lemon bars he’s ever eaten!
Leona Konkel says
Thank you! I'm glad he enjoyed them!!