You only need 7 ingredients to make these lemon bars. The lemon curd filling is extra thick and creamy and sits on an irresistible butter shortbread crust. Always bake lemon bars at a lower temperature to avoid over-baking. They’re simply the best lemon bars and are perfect for picnics, bake sales, spring brunches, baby showers, and bridal showers.
Today I’m teaching you how to make lemon bars. I love this lemon dessert recipe so much that I published it in my 1st cookbook, Sally’s Baking Addiction. These are the best lemon bars and I don’t use that statement lightly. After 1 taste, I’m confident you’ll agree. Everyone needs this recipe.
The process is pretty simple and I’m walking you through each step in the video tutorial below. Pick up some fresh citrus and let’s get baking. Spring is in the air!
Video Tutorial: Lemon Bars
These are classic lemon bars featuring a soft butter shortbread crust and a tangy sweet lemon curd filling that’s baked to the perfect consistency. The lemon layer is thick and substantial, not thin or flimsy like most other lemon bar recipes.
Only 7 Ingredients in these Lemon Bars
- Butter: Melted butter is the base of the shortbread crust.
- Sugar: Sugar sweetens the crust and lemon curd filling layers. Not only this, it works with the eggs to set up the lemon filling. If reduced, the filling will be too wet.
- Flour: Flour is also used in both layers. Like sugar, it gives structure to the lemon filling. These days, I add slightly more flour to the shortbread crust compared to my cookbook version. You can get away with 2 cups, but an extra 2 Tablespoons really helps solidify the foundation of the lemon bars.
- Vanilla Extract: I use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract in the shortbread crust. Not many lemon bar recipes call for vanilla extract and I promise you it’s my best kept secret.
- Salt: Without salt, the crust would be too sweet.
- Eggs: Eggs are most of the structure. Without them, you have lemon soup!
- Lemon Juice: I highly recommend using lemon juice squeezed from fresh lemons. You can also use another citrus like blood orange, grapefruit, or lime juice.
How to Make Lemon Bars in 5 Steps
- Prepare the crust: Mix all of the shortbread crust ingredients together, then press firmly into a 9×13 inch baking pan. Interested in a smaller batch? See my recipe note.
- Pre-bake: Pre-baking the crust guarantees it will hold up under the lemon layer.
- Prepare the filling: Whisk all of the filling ingredients together. No cooking on the stove!
- Bake: Pour the filling on the warm pre-baked crust, then bake for around 20 minutes or until the center is just about set. I slightly increased the baking temperature from my cookbook version. Either temperatures work, but 325°F is preferred.
- Cool: I usually cool the lemon bars for about 1 hour at room temperature, then stick the whole pan in the refrigerator for 1-2 more hours until relatively chilled. They’re wonderful cold and with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar on top!
Prepared in only 2 bowls and a baking pan, clean up is a breeze. These lemon bars win 1st place every time because they’re the perfect balance of tangy and sweet. In fact, I made them for my friend’s baby shower last weekend and they were the first dessert to disappear. And that’s saying a lot considering the competition: homemade chewy fudgy frosted brownies and adorable mini animal cracker cookies. 🙂
2 Guaranteed Tricks to Make the Best Lemon Bars
- Use a glass pan. Ceramic is fine, but glass is best. Do not use metal. I always detect a slight metallic flavor in the lemon bars when baked in metal pans.
- Use fresh juice. Store-bought bottles are convenient, but you miss out on a lot of flavor. You will definitely taste the difference! I have a super old citrus juicer, but I recently purchased this juicer for my mom and she loves it. Highly recommended.
White Air Bubbles on Top of Baked Lemon Bars
Do you notice air bubbles, perhaps even a white layer of air bubbles, on top of your baked lemon bars? That’s completely normal. It’s the air from the eggs rising to the surface. Some batches have it, some don’t. Regardless, the lemon bars taste the same and a dusting of confectioners’ sugar covers it right up!
Blood orange bars! See my recipe note about substituting flavors.
Want to kick it up a notch? Here are my lemon meringue pie and lemon cheesecake recipes.
Craving lots of texture with your bars? You’ll love my oatmeal lemon crumble bars.
Plenty of lemon recipes to love on my site including these lemon crinkle cookies and lemon thumbprint cookies! Regardless of what you choose, lemon-y desserts are always a great choice when looking for springtime or Easter dessert recipes.
PrintLemon Bars
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 50 minutes
- Yield: 24 bars
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You only need 7 ingredients to make these lemon bars. The lemon curd filling is extra thick and creamy and sits on an irresistible butter shortbread crust. Always bake lemon bars at a lower temperature to avoid over-baking. See recipe notes for important tips. They’re simply the best lemon bars and are perfect for picnics, bake sales, spring brunches, baby showers, and bridal showers.
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons (265g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
Lemon Filling
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons (46g) all-purpose flour
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
- optional: confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (163°C). Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch glass baking pan (do not use metal) with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides to lift the finished bars out (makes cutting easier!). Set aside.
- Make the crust: Mix the melted butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir to completely combine. The dough will be thick. Press firmly into prepared pan, making sure the layer of crust is nice and even. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven. Using a fork, poke holes all over the top of the warm crust (not all the way through the crust). A new step I swear by, this helps the filling stick and holds the crust in place. Set aside until step 4.
- Make the filling: Sift the sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, then the lemon juice until completely combined.
- Pour filling over warm crust. Bake the bars for 22-26 minutes or until the center is relatively set and no longer jiggles. (Give the pan a light tap with an oven mitt to test.) Remove bars from the oven and cool completely at room temperature. I usually cool them for about 2 hours at room temperature, then stick in the refrigerator for 1-2 more hours until pretty chilled. I recommend serving chilled.
- Once cool, lift the parchment paper out of the pan using the overhang on the sides. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares before serving. For neat squares, wipe the knife clean between each cut. Cover and store leftover lemon bars in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Freezing Instructions: Lemon bars can be frozen for up to 3-4 months. Cut the cooled bars (without confectioners’ sugar topping) into squares, then place onto a baking sheet. Freeze for 1 hour. Individually wrap each bar in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and place into a large bag or freezer container to freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator, then dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×13-inch Glass Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Silicone Spatula | Silicone Whisk | Juicer | Fine Mesh Sieve
- Halve the Recipe: Halve each of the ingredients to yield around 12 squares in a 9-inch square baking pan. Same oven temperature. Bake the crust for 16-18 minutes and the bars for 20 minutes or until the center no longer jiggles.
- Sifting: More often than not, the flour doesn’t fully incorporate into the lemon filling unless it’s sifted with the sugar. As directed in the recipe, sift the two together before adding the eggs and lemon juice. I don’t always do this (and didn’t even do it in the video above!) but it’s preferred to avoid any flour lumps. If you have a sifter, it’s worth using. If you forget, it’s not a huge deal. Here is my favorite sifter. You use it again to dust the lemon bars with confectioners’ sugar.
- Lemon Juice: For exceptional taste, I highly recommend fresh lemon juice. Here is a wonderful inexpensive juicer if you don’t have one. Or use another fresh-squeezed citrus like grapefruit, blood orange, lime, or regular orange. You can slightly reduce the sugar if using a sweeter citrus. I recommend no less than 1 and 2/3 cup granulated sugar in the filling as it’s needed for structure.
- Room Temperature: Bringing the eggs and lemon juice to room temperature helps them mix easier into the flour and sugar. However, I never notice a taste or texture difference when using cold. Room temperature or cold, use whichever!
Another great recipe! I used oranges instead of lemons. I thought they weren’t going to turn out because I used the big mixer instead of mixing by hand. It was full of bubbles but they baked up perfectly, I just had to add 10+ minutes to the baking time. Only setback was I covered them in powdered sugar after they cooled completely in fridge but the next day the powdered sugar melted. Next time I would only use powdered sugar on those I’m serving. 1 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice didn’t give it a punch of orange flavor, maybe adding a little zest or extract to bump the flavor. Whenever I’m interested in baking I search Sally’s website first and every recipe has been a success.
I’ve made these over and over, and they come out perfect each time. I never even liked lemon bars before trying these!
A keeper, even though I made some changes. I softened the butter but didn’t melt it, and mixed the crust then placed in pan. For the curd, I cut the sugar in half because I wanted tart not sweet, and routinely cut sugar in recipes whenever possible. I dusted the top with confectioners sugar to hit the top one of the palette before getting the tart lemon. Its easy to find LB recipes, but hard to find ones that are creamy, tart, and have a perfect not to soft not to hard crust. This one hits all of the notes.
These bars were amazing! For my second attempt I’m thinking about adding white chocolate chips. Do you think that would change anything baking wise?
Hi Maddie, we haven’t tested white chocolate chips before, but you could try adding them to the shortbread base. We wouldn’t add them to the lemon filling for fear they won’t set quite the same. Let us know if you do any experimenting!
I’m thinking of doubling these and baking in a half sheet pan (18×13). Do you think that will work fine?
Hi MB, that should work just fine! Hope it’s a hit.
This is an absolutely brilliant recipe! I’m making this for my best friend’s wedding and I was curious how many times I should double the recipe to make 80 total pour size lemon bars if they were roughly an inch and a half squared?
Pretty darn good, made them for my mom’s birthday. Somehow the crust rose to the top, but it might be because my oven seems to run cold. I used half fresh lime juice and half bottled lemon juice. Next time I’m thinking I might add some cherry juice in with lime juice to make cherry lime-aid bars.
Excellent recipe
Would it be possible to use gf flour for the crust, would any adjustments be needed?
Hi Will, we haven’t tested a gluten-free version of these bars, but some readers have reported success with using a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend.
This recipe is my new favorite go to! The Taste was excellent! Very quick and easy. I only did one extra thing and that was to add some zest.
These are truly the best lemon bars ever. I’ve been making them for a few years now, and just had to leave another review. Pretty much everyone who tastes these says they are the best ones they ever had. I always follow the recipe exactly as written. Have never had any issues with any of it. The. Best. Ever.
Can these bars be made ahead?
Hi Stef, the completed bars can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or, see step 6 for longer freezing instructions. Enjoy!
Id like to add blueberries to the lemon bars, but am wondering, should I mix them in before cooking or sprinkle on after? Has anyone tried this?
Hi Linda, we haven’t tested adding blueberries to these bars but let us know if you do! You may love these lemon blueberry cheesecake bars or this lemon blueberry tart.
Followed everything to a tee, yet I waited the 26 minutes for the filling to cook and it was still very jiggly, what did I do wrong?
Hi Addison, Simply varying ovens and pans. Nothing to worry about. Continue to bake until the center is just about set.
These are very yummy and have a good lemon flavor! The first time I made them though I followed th recipe closely and the filling was very gooey, drippy even. The second time I made it I added an additional tbsp of flour to the filling and baked it 5 min longer. The second batch turned out much better. I think though if I made them again I would bake the short bread crust 5 min longer as well.
This recipe is a winner every time, I follow the instructions exactly and it’s a hit no matter where I take them. Only adjustment needed is maybe a extra lemon or two for enough juice.
Followed the recipe to the letter and it was a disaster! The shortbread base seemed a lot wetter than in the video. After 24 mins of baking, the edges were starting to brown slightly so I took it out, pricked it lightly with a fork and poured over topping and all of the completely raw batter from the shortbread just floated to the top. So frustrating I wasted money on ingredients for this!
Hi Penny, we’d be happy to help troubleshoot. Usually when the bars end up inverted it’s because we either over-baked the crust, or let it cool for too long. Did you omit any of the ingredients from the crust by chance? It should be nice and thick, not wet.
Mine did the same thing, and I checked the ingredients 3x to make sure I didn’t omit anything. Way too much butter for the amount of flour called for in the crust.
Perfection! Just perfection–very, very lemony–followed the directions exactly–no issues. Oh, that buttery crust. I’ve thrown out all of my other lemon bar recipes. This is the one!
Okay so they taste great. But. This is my second time making them and the second time the top has had a layer that has set like an omelet. I’ve had to peel it off each time…. What’s the deal????
Hi Rose, if the lemon bars taste eggy and have a slightly eggy layer on the top like you mention, they were likely over baked. If you decide to make them again, we’d recommend slightly decreasing the bake time. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
This happened to me too. This would be helpful information to have in the recipe somewhere. I didn’t think I over baked mine…but the eggy taste says otherwise.
Did you make the filling in your mixer? Sounds like you whipped the eggs too much. You must hand mix the filling
I don’t understand the reviews saying they had issues. I followed the recipe to a tee and it came out perfect. However I prefer my shortbread to have more snap so I’m going to try this recipe again but with a more traditional shortbread and see how it goes. Very zingy but delicious
What an easy recipe. I did not have a 9 X 13 glass pan, so I used the next size down that is glass. Because of the smaller size pan, I added 2 minutes to the short bread baking and 2 minutes to filling baking time. The lemon bars came out perfect. This recipe is a keeper