Lightened-up creamy lemon goodness on a graham cracker crust! If you love tart and tangy lemon flavor and creamy, dreamy desserts, you will love these Greek yogurt lemon bars. With only 8 ingredients, these bars are perfectly balanced—not too sweet—allowing the bright, bold lemon flavor to take center stage.
I originally published this recipe in 2016. I have since updated it with new photos, and adjusted the recipe to make a slightly thicker, sturdier crust.
Today I’m sharing an updated version of my recipe for tart and tangy Greek yogurt lemon bars. This recipe makes 12 servings, each packed with 4.7g of protein. This is a fabulous choice if you’re craving real, fresh flavor and prefer a lighter dessert option.
One reader, Mary, commented: “I can’t keep these on the tray!!! I’ll set them out, and the room usually gets quiet because everyone immediately shoves these in their faces. Even before I reveal that they’re low fat, low sugar, low calorie, and low carb! And there’s always someone who wants the recipe. Good thing I have it bookmarked! ★★★★★”
And another reader, Turi, commented: “Wow!! I was totally hankering for lemony goodness—and in making these bars, it’s exactly what I got! Yummy, complete success, everyone loved them, I especially loved the natural lemon flavor and lower sugar… Most lemon stuff, to me, is overpoweringly sweet, and this was PERFECTO!! ★★★★★“
Here’s Why You’ll Love Them, Too:
- A lightened-up dessert with only 158 calories per serving, plus 4.7g of protein
- Perfect for lemon lovers who like their treats tart and not overly sweet
- Made with just 8 simple ingredients
- Extra creamy from the Greek yogurt
- Uses fresh lemon for flavor, nothing artificial. Swap the lemon for lime if you’d prefer!
- Great make-ahead dessert: the bars have to chill after baking, so this is a great recipe to make the day before you plan to serve it
Recipe Snapshot
Flavor: The first thing to know is that these Greek yogurt lemon bars are not super sweet. I reduced the sugar from my traditional lemon bar recipe to just 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon for the entire pan. What you’ll really taste is that tart lemon flavor and tangy Greek yogurt.
Texture: The texture of the lemon cream portion of these bars is creamier than typical lemon cheesecake bars. The cream cheese in the recipe serves to help the bars set up, but it’s not as sturdy or solid as cheesecake. We’re using less cream cheese and more yogurt and egg here, so the result is a light and creamy lemon filling that falls, on the dessert density scale, somewhere between lemon pudding or yogurt and no-bake cheesecake.
Start With an Easy 3-Ingredient Crust
Like a classic graham cracker crust, but with less butter and sugar. As a result, the crust is a tiny bit crumblier, but you can still easily hold and bite the bars!
I’ve made this crust with melted coconut oil and it’s still perfection. You want to use a fat that is solid at room temperature because it helps keep the crust intact. So butter or coconut oil, your choice. Melt and mix with the graham cracker crumbs and a Tablespoon of sugar.
Some helpful crust tips:
- Use a food processor or blender to grind 8 full-sheet graham crackers into crumbs.
- Press into your lined pan just until it’s no longer crumbly. Do not pack down too hard.
- Here’s how I like to line square baking pans. So easy!
- Pre-bake the crust for 8 minutes to give it a head start before topping with the filling.
Make the Creamy Lemon Filling
Let’s talk about that lusciously creamy lemon filling. It’s a total breeze, made from only 6 simple ingredients:
- Reduced-Fat Cream Cheese: The filling won’t appropriately set without brick-style cream cheese—the kind that comes in a block, not the spreadable kind in a tub. I use reduced-fat cream cheese in these bars.
- Nonfat Greek Yogurt: Make sure you are using plain Greek yogurt. You need thick yogurt for today’s lemon bars, or, again, the filling won’t set. I always use nonfat Greek yogurt for these bars, and it’s plenty creamy, but you can use 2% Greek yogurt if you wish.
- Eggs + Extra Yolk: These provide the bars with necessary structure, as well as some richness.
- Lemons: Zest the lemon before juicing it—much easier than the other way around!
- Sugar: Just a scant 1/3 cup of granulated sugar is needed to take this tart lemon filling from mouth-puckering to mouth-watering. I do not recommend honey, maple syrup, or other sugar alternatives. I haven’t had great results with coconut sugar, either. Feel free to test some things out but, again, regular sugar is the best choice for these.
- Vanilla: The other flavor the filling needs to carry it into cheesecake/dessert territory.
A handheld or stand mixer makes quick work of bringing the filling together.
Expect a thin filling batter—more liquid-y than a typical cheesecake batter—since we’re using less cream cheese and more yogurt and egg. Make sure you pour it over the crust while the crust is still warm. This will help the filling adhere to the crust a little better.
You’ll likely see some air bubbles on the surface. The batter is very thin, so that’s normal.
Bake until the middle is no longer super wobbly. A little jiggle is ok, because the Greek yogurt lemon bars will continue to set up as they chill in the refrigerator. So you don’t need to bake them until the center is completely solid! In fact, over-baking can cause the surface to crack.
How to Cut Neat Squares
Like cheesecake, today’s bars need to be refrigerated before slicing. If you cut the bars into squares too early, they’ll completely fall apart. If I’m serving these at a party or event, I prepare them the night before just so I know they’ll cool and chill long enough to yield neat squares.
Lift the bars out of the pan by holding the edges of the parchment paper, and transfer the whole thing to a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to slice the bars, and wipe the knife clean with a paper towel between each cut.
Serve plain or with some lemon slices and/or fresh berries. They’d also be delicious topped with a drizzle of raspberry sauce!
And if you like these bars, you’ll love this Greek yogurt fruit tart, too.
Print
Greek Yogurt Lemon Bars
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours, 55 minutes
- Yield: 12 bars
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
If you love tart and tangy lemon flavor and creamy, dreamy desserts, you will love these lightened-up Greek yogurt lemon bars. With only 8 ingredients, these bars are perfectly balanced—not too sweet—allowing the bright, bold lemon flavor to take center stage.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup (120g) graham cracker crumbs (about 8 full-sheet graham crackers)
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)
Filling
- 6 ounces (170g) brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (181g) plain nonfat or low-fat Greek yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature*
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature*
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice (about 2–3 lemons)*
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional for garnish: lemon slices and fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F (149°C). Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on 2 sides to easily lift the bars out of the pan before cutting. Set aside.
- Make the crust: In a medium bowl, whisk the graham cracker crumbs and sugar together. Add the melted butter and stir until combined. Press evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.
- Make the filling: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on high speed until completely smooth, about 1 minute. Add yogurt and beat on medium-high speed until completely combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula and beat again as needed to combine. Beat in the eggs and egg yolk. Once combined, add the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and beat until everything is combined and no lumps remain. Filling is thin. Pour filling into the crust—it’s ok if the crust is still slightly warm.
- Bake for 34–38 minutes or until the middle is no longer wobbly. A little jiggle is ok—the bars will continue to set up as they chill in the refrigerator, so you don’t need to bake them until the center is perfectly solidified. Don’t over-bake these bars, or the surface may crack.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack and cool for 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 3–4 hours or even overnight.
- Once chilled, lift the bars out of the pan using the parchment overhang on the sides and cut into bars. For neat bars, I use a very sharp knife and wipe it clean with a paper towel after each cut.
- Cover and store leftover bars in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare the bars 1–3 days in advance and store covered tightly in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8-inch Square Pan | Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowl | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester
- Eggs: You will need 2 large eggs plus an additional egg yolk.
- Lime Bars: Instead of lemon juice and lemon zest, try lime juice and lime zest for a tangy lime bar instead.
- Room-Temperature Ingredients: Room-temperature dairy and eggs mix easily and more evenly. I always recommend room temperature, especially cream cheese, when making these types of bars.
- Update in 2025: To ensure the crust is substantial enough AND holds together, I slightly increased the graham cracker crumbs from 3/4 cup to 1 cup, and added 1 Tablespoon of sugar.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 158
- Sugar: 10.7 g
- Sodium: 136.1 mg
- Fat: 8.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 16.8 g
- Protein: 4.7 g
- Cholesterol: 64 mg
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally! I made these yesterday and they are so good. I subbed monk fruit sweetener for the sugar, which worked just fine. I was originally going to make these in a 9×9, but the grahm cracker mixture didn’t have nearly enough to cover the bottom of the pan, so I switched to the 8×8. As others stated, the bake time for me was closer to 50 minutes, since I was following the visual directions more than the time. Thanks for your tip about the clean cuts! I think that gave me the prettiest cut I’ve ever gotten on a bar recipe.
Really loved these!! I halved the recipe to give it a try. But will definitely make a full tray now! Mine also took a bit longer than 30 minutes, more like 40-45. Love that they are on the lighter side but still taste just like cheesecake and not too sweet!
The lemon flavor is definitely there, but mine did not turn out anywhere near what the picture looks like. I’m not sure what I did wrong, the crust turned out to be really soggy and the filling turned out to be really thin. Mine also cracked on top while they were in the oven, so I’m not quite sure what I did wrong. Would you have any suggestions on trying them differently next time?
Hi Jen, when you say thin do you mean the filling was liquidy and thin or the layer itself didn’t seem like enough? Did you use a different size pan by chance? If you ever try the recipe again, pre-bake the crust for closer to 12 minutes. For the filling, you can 1.5x the recipe so it’s a thicker layer. I would keep the total amount of yogurt to 1 cup though.
Hi Sally,
Thanks for getting back to me.
I felt like the filling maybe wasn’t enough. I also think that I didn’t let the cream cheese and Greek yogurt come up to room temperature enough so I think they were still too many lumps in the filling still. I actually used a 9×9 square pan to bake these in. I will definitely try it with keeping the crust in the oven for a little bit longer and increasing the recipe of the filling.
Thank you so much for the advice.
great and easy to do. i doubled the recipe since i had a bigger plan. delicious and not too sweet
I haven’t tried the recipe yet but sounds delicious! I’ve been searching for a lemon bar recipe and glad i found this one. Although, while searching Pinterest, I came across a recipe for lemon bars that was posted by askdrnandi.com and quickly noticed it was your exact recipe, copied verbatim, and they used your recipe photo. Seemed like they were trying to pass it off as their own but hopefully they have you credit. I love your recipes and you should always get the credit for your creations!
Excellent recipe! I love lemon and I love cheesecake, but I don’t like the huge calories associated with cheesecake (normally!). These are refreshing in the heat of summer, and a tasty sweet treat w/minimal calories. I did end up baking mine for 38 minutes.
I know this post is from 2016, but in case anyone is still listening, I’d like to say these are awesome! I used digestive biscuits instead of graham crackers because they’d what I had. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. Mine were done in exactly 32 minutes, cooled for an hour or so and then sliced into clean squares. It’s perfect as written. Thanks for a real winner here. Also, I’m currently doing Weight Watchers. For anyone who’s interested, I calculated that for a pan divided into 16 squares, each bar has 4 WW points.
My daughter has been dying for me to make lemon bars. These were AMAZING! My entire family loves them!
I love this recipe!!!! I’ve made it with lemon (and lemon zest) and orange (with orange zest) so far and am going to try out grapefruit this week. It’s so tasty and you don’t feel guilty! Bake time for me is much longer as well, but I just wait until the center doesn’t jiggle. I also make it in a pie pan, so that probs contributes to the longer baking time. Really easy and SO GOOD!
Officially my go-to cheesecake recipe!! A healthier version BUT still delicious and rich. My friends and family couldn’t even tell that it was healthy. I made both a lemon and a lime version. The only thing I must note is that I had to increase the baking time to ~50 minutes (at the stated 300 degrees) and I had to use extra graham crackers and butter (about 1 1/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs)
Lovely cheesecake bar! Served with unsweetened whipped cream and fresh plump blueberries…..this recipe is a keeper!
Hi Sally I am a very good cook but I always have resisted baking because I love being creative and not being tied to following exact step by step directions. Lol ! However I made this as a pie in a beautiful pyrex pie plate. I am happy to say that it came out beautifully and I was so proud! (I did 1 1/2 x the recipe for 6 of us) I covered the whole thing with a layer of blueberries and dusted it with powdered sugar. Everyone wanted a second piece, even though it was right after New Year’s! They couldn’t believe it was so low calorie. I will definitely make it again and thank you for encouraging me to bake!
Hi Michelle! You can use either. I use metal. Metal usually bakes bars quicker. If using glass, you may want to add a few extra minutes of bake time. The best way to determine doneness, however, is not by the time. Give the pan a gently tap– if the center of the bars no longer jiggle, they’re done!
These are the best thing I have run across in a long time. Some time ago I found a lemon meringue cookie that crumbled easily and was very lemony tasting. I bought several packages, made crumbs in the food processor, and froze them thinking they would make a great crust for a lemon bar. I followed your recipe exactly but used those instead of graham crackers, and I’m so thrilled with the results. I scooped the bars into 3oz deli containers with lids and froze them for a low calorie treat. The best baking start for 2020 that I could have wished for. Thanks so much.
Hi Sally. I’ve made this recipe numerous times … probably at least 20. I love all your recipes and I tell other folks about your blog and books and social accounts. I always make this recipe into cupcake size and I modify the flavours using different flavoured yogurts and pair it with same flavour fruit. It’s such a forgiving recipe to let the imagination be the boundary. Thanks for you, your patient teachings, wisdom and goof proof recipes. Tomorrow at RMH where I volunteer bake, your baked donuts are going down in honour of soon to be Calgary International Exhibition & Stampede. Worlds Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth. . I use your recipes almost every week. Cheers!
I hope people read the comments on baking time. I made a single batch and BAKING TIME WAS 52 MINUTES. They came out perfect. I was worried because the batter is very thin. I used 8 ounces full fat cream cheese and backed off on the yogurt to 1/2 cup. increased sugar to 1/2 cup. Not 130 calories, but that’s ok. 😉 they are Fabulous!
First of all these are DELICIOUS. They are fresh, lemony, and the perfect amount of sweet. They taste like cheesecake without the guilt!
Second, I too had to bake mine closer to 50 minutes before it stopped jiggling in the middle.
I will gladly make these again!
The taste of these were great. However, like others I had problems with the bake time. I ended up baking them for 50 minutes because it was still jiggly. It broke apart as I tried moving it to the serving platter and was pretty crumbly. It was pretty disappointing. It is too bad because I really wanted to try the pineapple bars but they are made the same way.
Hey Sally! I was thinking of making these for Easter. I made your other recipes for lemon blueberry cheesecake bars and the skinny chocolate chip cheesecake bars and they were both delicious perfection!! I would like to try these, but I was curious if you think I could add the blueberries to this recipe like the other ones. I basically want to make the lightened up Greek yogurt version of the original blueberry lemon cheesecake. Do you think they will still set up properly with the blueberries?
Sure will! Make sure you use fresh– not frozen– blueberries.
Sally, every recipe of yours I’ve tried has been delicious! Whenever I talk about trying a new recipe, my husband always tells me to check your blog to see if you have a recipe 😉 I’m curious, can I substitute block greek cheese instead of cream cheese? Texture is almost the same, but I think it has slightly less fat and higher protein and I didn’t know if that would negatively affect your recipe. Thanks!
These are SO good. I do not miss the extra calories in typical lemon bars at all. Just made these for our 4th of July BBQ and wish I didn’t have to share! They taste especially good topped with blueberries and strawberries.
Hi Sally, this recipe looks awesome and I’d love to make it for a party I’m having. Any idea of what would need to change if I doubled it in a 9×13? Or would a bigger pan be necessary?
9×13 is the perfect size for doubling this recipe. Unsure of the bake time though. Let me know how it goes!
Wow!! I was totally hankering for lemony goodness– and in making these bars, it’s exactly what I got! Yummy, complete success, everyone loved them, I especially loved the natural lemon flavor and lower sugar… Most lemon stuff, to me, is overpoweringly sweet, and this was PERFECT!! Thanks!! It’s a new favorite:)
I made these yesterday, followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfectly. I made a tart raspberry puree to go on top – delicious. They are all gone already!
My husband wants them again for his birthday next month. If I double the recipe can I use a larger pan? Or do you suggest keeping it in the small pan, and doing two so it cooks evenly?
Thanks again for another keeper, Sally!
I made these for family dinner night this week. Wow, what a hit and so easy to make. The perfect level of lemon tanginess. Being in Australia, I used Arnott’s Granita biscuits, ratio half butter to biscuits. Baking the base first meant it did not crumble which I sometimes have trouble with in cheesecakes. I also increased the filling ingredients by half as much again because I was using a 9″ tin, and the filling was lovely and generous! Just baked it for a little longer, but still kept the jiggle. Tastes even better the next day! Thank you for a great recipe.
I made these and they are delicious! I usually reduce the amount of sugar in dessert recipes (by a lot), but I didn’t feel the need to do that with these bars. They had a very refreshing sweet and sour thing happening. Thank you for a great lower sugar dessert!
Hi Sally! I made these the other day, and oh my, they are delicious! I accidentally made them with the full 8 oz of cream cheese instead of 6. Oops. No longer 130 calories, but! The lemon flavor was still there, and I LOVED the tartness of them. I like what you wrote about freezing them, so I stored about half in the freezer as a nice surprise for me a few weeks from now, and the rest I’ve been devouring as dessert since!
Sally! You have a winner, winner chicken dinner here so to speak. I made this yesterday for a family gathering and even my picky niece and nephew loved it, and he had TWO pieces. Thank you for sharing and inspiring me. The lemon flavor is just perfectly balanced – light, not too tart, basically YUM in every bite. ~smile~
I made these yesterday and oh my, so yummy! I used gluten-free graham crackers so my daughter didn’t have to miss out and it worked out really well. As my husband was happily trying to say how good they were (had a mouthful, we couldn’t stop ourselves), I said, “Thanks, Sally!” to you! Every recipe I have ever made from you has been a hit, this one was next in line. Thanks for bringing all the yumminess!
These were fantastic! Made them yesterday and they are gone. My kids just loved them! Thanks for the healthy treat!