Smooth, tangy lemon filling baked on a shortbread crust and dusted with powdered sugar.
What is your opinion on lemon? Love it or hate it? I feel like lemon desserts fall into a love or hate category with people. There is no middle ground. In my house, I love lemon desserts, my husband won’t touch them. So it’s what I make if I want to eat the whole pan. My favorite lemon dessert would be simple, ordinary lemon bars. The smooth, slightly tart filling pairs with the sweet, crisp shortbread so well. (These lemon crinkle cookies are also a favorite!)
This is a total side track topic since I’m not feeding lemon bars to my baby yet. But, have any of you made your own baby food? I’ve just started into this venture and could use some tips. Right now, I’m feeding him basic purees, peas, sweet potatoes, apricots, avocado. The hardest part is figuring out how to freeze it. Using ice cube trays to freeze it until it’s solid and then transferring the frozen cubes to ziploc bags is clunky. But buying individual containers for each meal is pretty expensive. Give me your best tips for baby food storage.
Perfect Lemon Bars
Smooth, tangy lemon filling baked on a shortbread crust and dusted with powdered sugar.
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
For the filling
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. To make the crust, beat together the butter and powdered sugar until fluffy. Gently stir in the flour just until combined. Press the dough into the bottom of the 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 F for 16-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool completely.
Meanwhile, to make the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour. Pour over the cooled crust. Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes or until the filling is set. Let cool. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Store in the refrigerator.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1 barAmount Per Serving: Calories: 270 Total Fat: 9g Saturated Fat: 5g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 3g Cholesterol: 67mg Sodium: 79mg Carbohydrates: 45g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 32g Protein: 3g
Here are some other fun variation on lemon bars:
Lemon Pie Bars from Deliciously Sprinkled
Oatmeal Lemon Cream Bars from Belle of the Kitchen
Lemon Cheesecake Bars from Shugary Sweets
Leidy S. says
Mallory!!! I made them yesterday and they’re AWESOME!!!!
Thank you for the recipe!!
Mallory says
I’m glad you liked them, Leidy!
Heathe Lalonde says
Hi Mallory. I made these lemon bars today and they look awesome. I was wondering if you can freeze them?
Lauren says
Yes you can
debora says
Hi! I made them yesterday and they’re delicious. But.. It’s hard to detach from pan, and generally- it seems as though the crust is up, and the mushy lemon dough is down. How is that possible? I did, of course, bake thr crust first..
Any help or comment?
Thanks!!
Anelo says
I just made these. They came out perfect. I baked them on parchment paper and they are easy to take out. I don’t know why yours came out upside down. Maybe you didn’t press down the crust hard enough? I also pressed some crust up on the sides in the dish before baking, just a bit and poured the filling on the crust while it was still a little warm(I got impatient lol) Perhaps that helped.
Donna says
I made these lemon bars and everyone loved them. I just have a question about them. How does the crust end up on top? Does this happen when you make it? I followed the instructions.
Thank you for sharing
Carol says
Any thoughts on how many large lemons might be required for 1 cup of juice?
Alli says
In my experience, a large lemon yields approx 1/4c of juice.
Robin Finston says
I made these too & the crust ended up on top. I even used parchment paper & the lemon layer went below the parchment. I followed directions to a tee & I don’t know what happened.
Elin says
Made these today, turned out so delicious! Love lemons in baking, gives it a freshness that is hard to achieve in baking otherwise.
Stephanie says
Hi! I want to make this recipe but I am curious about some of the reviews discussing how the crust ends up on top…really curious how that physically happens and would love some more details on that snafu. Thanks
Michelle says
I also made these and the crust went to the top as well. I’m thinking that when I baked it the crust made an air bubble and then when I poured the lemon mix it got underneath and made it all lift to the top. I’m thinking that if you were to poke holes with a fork through the crust, or cook the lemon mix in a pot a bit so it thickens and then spread it on top of the crust before you bake it, that it would solve that problem. (Going to try it tomorrow and see if that works.)
Candice says
These were super super sweet and I was so dissapointed!
Vpl says
Made these tonight. It was so good.
I baked the crust a little longer and before baking, I poked holes in the crust with a fork. It came out perfect.
Carol says
I have made these several times now. They are the best lemon bars ever! Only thing I do different is that I put a lemon flavored frosting on top. Powdered sugar, lemon juice mixed together.
Yvonne says
I made these last night. As others are saying the crust went on top. Well mine ended up with crust on top and the bottom lol. And the lemon mix is in the middle. I dont know what I did put they look pretty cool. I like how the lemon ended up in the middle. ?
Ioana says
These lemon bars were fantastic, Everyone at my birthday loved them!
Gigi says
The lemon bars were great! I followed directions step by step. The texture and flavors were as expected. I think is important to make sure the bottom crust is cook well and brown a little. Also let the crust cool completely before pouring filling. I believe these 2 steps are very important
Dwight Hawkinson says
I should have used parchment paper. Mine stuck to the glass baking dish even though I sprayed it first. Otherwise, it turned out well.
Nena says
I made these and they came out perfect. After cooling in the fridge and before serving I sprinkled the powdered sugar on top but it dissolved into the lemon. I sprinkled more and same thing. Any reason why ?
I ended up putting a dollop of whipped cream
on top.
Mallory says
The fridge causes condensation on the top and that absorbs the powdered sugar. Cool them on the counter and then sprinkle with powdered sugar and it shouldn’t dissolve.
Rena says
I followed the instruction on baking the filling on did thr 30 min. But it looks like cake! Not sure what I did wrong.
Christine Majewski says
I have made these several times. No issues with the crust. People just rave over them. Perfect combination of delicate crust and lemony topping.
Brianna says
My lemon bars got brown on top but still weren’t set after almost 40 mins of baking. Wondering what happened? I did walk away from my mixer while it was beating eggs and sugar and it was very light and fluffy when I came back, maybe I over whipped my eggs? Also, my oven had been on for hours as I had been baking up a storm for Thanksgiving, maybe it was too hot? Everything else I did exactly as written.
Cheryl says
Like almost everyone else that commented my crust ended up on top. They also stuck to the dish despite following directions and pressing it down with parchment paper. I reduced the sugar a bit but they are still to sweet. I am disappointed in this recipe
Karen says
I
Made these bars and I too had the issue with the crust coming on both bottom and top so I did a little bit of research and made some changes for the next batch. First of all I used a 2 1/2 inch high pan since there is a lot of liquid filling. Since the filling went underneath the parchment I-laid parchment Side by side (overlapping them )which made it taller all the way Around avoiding any leakage. The last thing I did was to cook the crust about 30 minutes Creating a nice brown nutty flavor. When it started getting really brown and I covered it lightly with parchment so that it would not burn. They came out amazing!! The flavor of the brown crust really added to the sweet tart filling. This recipe is now my go to with the above changes.
Suzanne says
This looks delicious! Thank you for sharing!