Enjoying a light and flavorful dessert is a great way to relax on a warm summer day. And when it comes to classic desserts, you won’t find a better option than these easy lemon bars.
Easy Lemon Bars
With a tart custard and crispy crust, these classic easy lemon bars are always a refreshing treat! And with this recipe, you can prepare the buttery shortbread crust and creamy filling in just a few minutes.
Other fruit desserts you will love:
- Mini lemon tarts
- Sugar free no bake lemon pie
- Lemon mousse with cream cheese
- Lemon almond cookies
- Blueberry streusel muffins
- Apple pull apart bread
- Slow cooker lemon crunch cake
Easy Lemon Bars Tips
If you have ever tried making lemon bars at home, you know that they can sometimes be a finnicky dessert to prepare. Use these simple baking tips to ensure your homemade lemon bars come out perfectly the first time you make them:
- Use a glass baking dish. While the type of baking dish you use often doesn’t matter when preparing other desserts, glass is the best option for preparing lemon bars. That’s because the custard often soaks in the metallic flavor of metal pans, leaving a slightly metallic taste to your bars.
- Sift the dry ingredients before adding to the curd. To help the flour fully incorporate into the other ingredients in the lemon filling, it’s a good idea to sift the flour and sugar together before adding it to the bowl. This gives the dry ingredients a finer texture, making it easier to mix the flour into the lemon juice and eggs without clumping.
- Use room temperature ingredients. For best results, make sure to use room temperature ingredients when preparing your lemon bars. Bringing the eggs to room temperature makes them easier to mix, ensuring all your lemon filling ingredients get fully combined before baking.
How Do you Squeeze a Lemon Easily?
Since fresh lemon juice is the best option for this recipe, it’s a good idea to learn how to properly squeeze a lemon to get most juice out of each fruit. Follow these steps to easily squeeze a lemon:
- Roll the lemon back and forth on the counter to soften it.
- Slice your lemon crosswise down the middle.
- Hold the lemon over a bowl facing upward.
- Squeeze three times between your hand, rotating the lemon slightly after each squeeze.
- Press a spoon into the insides of the lemon to release remaining juice.
- Repeat the process with the other half of the lemon.
- Remove seeds from the bowl with your fingers or strain the juice through a fine mesh strainer before adding it to your lemon bars.
Do these easy Lemon Bars Need to be Refrigerated?
After allowing your bars to cool completely, they’re ready to be served. Your cooked bars can be kept at room temperature for up to six hours. After that, you’ll need to place them in an air tight container and store the bars in the refrigerator. You can enjoy your leftover bars cold or allow them to come to room temperature before you eat them.
How Can You Tell When my Lemon squares are Done Baking?
Cooking the best lemon bars can sometimes be difficult because it’s hard to tell when they are done baking. If you underbake your lemon bars, your filling will be runny. But if you overcook them, you’ll end up with a chewy crust and cracked filling. That means there’s a delicate balance that comes along with baking these delicious squares.
The best way to tell if your lemon treats are finished baking is to lightly shake the pan. Give the pan a little shake and see if the filling jiggles. If the lemon filling doesn’t jiggle, your bars are ready to come out of the oven. But if the center is still jiggly, the squares should be cooked for a few minutes longer.
Lemon squares recipe
Lemon Bar Ingredients
One of the best parts about this easy lemon bar recipe is the fact that it uses just a handful of simple ingredients. In fact, you probably have everything you need to make them in your kitchen right now! This simple recipe is made with:
- Butter: You can’t make a classic shortbread without butter, so it’s an essential ingredient in this recipe. For the best results, don’t swap out butter with margarine or shortening!
- Sugar: Give your dessert just the right amount of sweetness by adding white sugar to the crust and lemon curd filling.
- Flour: To create a stable lemon bar, you should use flour in both the crust and the filling. The flour in the crust creates the shortbread and the flour in the filling helps stabilize the lemon curd and keeps it from becoming too runny as it bakes.
- Vanilla extract: Without vanilla extract, your crust would be pretty flavorless. The extract helps balance the tart lemon curd, providing a deliciously balanced dessert.
- Eggs: To make the smooth and creamy lemon curd for your bars, eggs are an essential component. The eggs turn plain lemon juice into curd, creating a smooth filling for the top of your squares.
- Lemon juice: Fresh lemon juice is the best option to create a delicious flavor in your bars. I wouldn’t recommend using lemon juice from the bottle because it just doesn’t have the same flavor as freshly squeezed juice.
How to make lemon squares
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides, to help you to lift the bars out of the pan. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl combine the melted butter with sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt. Add the flour and stir to fully combine. The dough will be thick. Press the dough firmly into the prepared pan, in an even layer.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are just lightly browned. Remove from the oven and use a fork to poke holes all over the warm crust.
- Sift the sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice and whisk until fully combined. Pour lemon filling over the warm crust and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the center no longer jiggles.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Place in the refrigerator for 2 more hours until fully chilled. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve with a dollop of cream cheese on top.
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Easy lemon bars
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
For the filling
- 2/3 cups icing sugar
- 6 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 6 eggs large
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups lemon juice about 5 medium lemons
To decorate
- icing sugar
- cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides, to help you to lift the bars out of the pan. Set aside.
To make the crust
- In a medium bowl combine the melted butter with sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt.
- Add the flour and stir to fully combine. The dough will be thick.
- Press the dough firmly into the prepared pan, in an even layer.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are just lightly browned. Remove from the oven and use a fork to poke holes all over the warm crust.
To make the filling
- Sift the sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice and whisk until fully combined.
- Pour lemon filling over the warm crust and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the center no longer jiggles.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Place in the refrigerator for 2 more hours until fully chilled. Once cooled and ready to serve, lift the parchment paper out of the pan using the overhang on the sides. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve with a dollop of cream cheese frosting on top.
Rebecca Crabtree says
What is icing sugar? regular sugar or powdered sugar??
petro says
It’s powdered sugar, Rebecca!