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
My children greeted me with, “Mom, these are exceptional! Make these again!” They really are positively delicious.
This recipe sounds great!! Instead of Graham Crackers, I was thinking about using Biscoff cookies, because I have a lot on hand. What are your thoughts? Same amounts? Thank you!
Hi Cathee, absolutely, you can use Biscoff cookies instead. Same amount. Enjoy!
Could you use bottled lemon juice?
Hi ReeMe, for best flavor we do recommend using fresh lemons, but bottled will work in a pinch.
I have been looking for something like this for a while so I have was so anxious to try it. I don’t want to be that person that says they loved it but I had to change it..we love ot, we had to do it a bit differently though
I had everything but the graham crackers but I have graham cracker pie shell so I used one of those and made a pie. It would have taken the whole recipe but I cut it in half because it is just the 2 of us. I have had to cut out sugar so I used Allulose which worked well I think. I used 35 grams of allulose for my half recipe. It could be sweeter but since I love sour lemon anything we are fine with the nice tartness. This is the perfect simple desert and since I usually have most of these items in my house, this has officially become our new weekly baking desert. I think I will try using cottage cheese instead of cream cheese next time. Thank you
I want to make this recipe for my dad who due to health complications can’t eat graham crackers as they are too processed. I did some research and I think a good substitute could be almond flour. What are your thoughts?
Hi Chloe, we haven’t tested an almond flour crust. It likely would not be a 1:1 swap and would require some testing. We would love to hear how it goes if you give it a try!
Hi Chloe, I’m diabetic and I used Catalina crunch cereal (which is keto). I used a nutribullet to blend into powder. Hope this helps!
LOVE THIS RECIPE!!!
Can I make these with full-fat Greek yogurt? That’s what I have in hand.
Hi Kathy, yes, it will work fine, it will obviously just add more fat and calories to the bars.
I combined non-fat vanilla Greek yogurt with a little full-fat plain Greek yogurt and it came out great! Unfortunately my oven was a little too hot and I didn’t check on them soon enough, so they were slightly overdone and cracked. They still tasted creamy and yummy though!
Please can you tell me what the equivalent is to Graham Crackers in England?
Hi Yvonne, you can use plain digestives instead. Enjoy!
Thank you so much for adding the nutrition facts!! Obviously nutrition can vary depending on ingredients used etc, but in the past when I have tried inputting your recipes into calculators, they haven’t been able to give me the info I needed which prevented me from trying a lot of your baking I really appreciate it!
This is the best recipe! I used key lime juice and lime zest, they turned out perfect…
Is their a way to adjust the recipe for diabetic people?
Hi Diana, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
This was given a big thumbs down by my family. I tried.
I would like to know whether you have a particular tip in order for the eggs not to smell. I have faced the same issue with the lemon custard too, otherwise these two recipes are great!
Hi Eve, when recipes like this one (and lemon bars and lemon curd, too), they can take on an eggy taste if they are over baked. For next time, try removing the bars from the oven a minute or two earlier. Hope this helps!
Could I use vanilla Greek yogurt? Thank you
Absolutely.
So amazing! And lower calorie than other recipes! Wow! So creamy and lemony and dreamy. I didn’t have grahams so I used vanilla wafers, so yummy. Thanks for a great recipe.
These tasted really good!!! However – they took a WHOPPING 40 mins longer to bake and when I took the pan out finally (after checking every 5 mins), it still had a good jiggle in the middle. But they set up just fine overnight. Mind you – I bake almost every day and have never once had to adjust my cooking time/temp for a recipe so I’m not sure what happened here. But like I said, they taste really good so worth the extra time.
I made this recipie and really enjoyed it! However, I really like lemon, when I make lemon things I want the lemon-ness to really punch me in the mouth. Is there anything I can do to make this more lemony? I tried increasing the amount of zest but that just wasn’t enough. Could I maybe make a reduction of a larger quantity of lemon juice? Or perhaps use lemon essence? I’ve never used it before so I’m unsure if thats the taste I’m going for, or how much to use.
Hi EJ, additional lemon zest would be our first recommendation. You could also try adding in lemon essence or lemon extract — exact amount would depend on how much flavor you’re looking for. We’d recommend starting small (as the extract and essence can be quite potent) and adjusting for future batches as you see fit. Glad you’ve been enjoying these bars!
I plan to make these tomorrow but I want to use Nilla Waffles for the crust instead of Gram Crackers. Your thoughts?
The same amount of crushed vanilla wafers should work well. Let us know how it goes!
I loved this recipe and so did everyone that ate it! I was wondering if anyone has tried making it with oranges or strawberries? Thank you for posting this it’s now included in my favorite recipes!
Hi Marie! Orange should work just fine, swapping for orange juice and zest. A strawberry version would take a bit of recipe testing, as they have so much added liquid and could impact how the bars set. Let us know what you try!
These were a hit with my family on Easter. The bars are nice and tart, just the way we like our desserts. My only change for future makes would be to increase the crust ingredients by 50%. Just a bit more depth to the bottom layer would be helpful in keeping the bars stable for serving. For those of you who think it needs more baking time, it does not. I guess we all have different views of what “no more jiggle” means but a little wobble is fine. Don’t bake these until the top is solid and unmoving.
Outstanding. Would add even more zest though
Could you bake these in a springform pan to look like a round cheesecake?
Hi Natalie, We haven’t tested it but you certainly can. An 8 inch round pan would be best or the bars would be very thin.
I made these yesterday and they are pretty good! It’s basically a super sour lemon cheesecake. The texture is wonderful. I think these would be better with something sweeter on top- maybe whipped cream?
Such a great recipe. I made both lemon and lime and they’ve been such a hit! Now that it’s fall I’m wondering if I can swap in some pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice instead of the lemon juice and zest to give a low calorie version of a pumpkin cheesecake bar. Any suggestions on quantities or if this would work? Thanks!
Hi John! We haven’t tested that particular combination so can’t offer any advice – it would take some testing. You may love our skinny pumpkin cheesecake brownies, though!
The 130 calorie Greek yogurt bars would tasty, but there were some mistakes in the recipe. The recipe called for a bake at 300°F for 28-32 minutes. This was very incorrect. I baked these for more than fifty minutes. In addition, the Graham crackers did not fill completely in my 8×8 pan.
All in all, the bars were fun to make and tasted nice. As a new baker, I learned to read the comments for tips and troubles. I’ll probably make them again with a few changes lol 🙂
These are wonderful but I did have to bake them longer. I used a glass pan. If I used the whole bar of cream cheese, how would I adjust the eggs?
Hi Judy, each oven can be different and glass pans tend to take a bit longer to bake through, so no worries that yours took a few minutes longer. For best results, we don’t recommend using the full block of cream cheese — it would take some recipe testing to guarantee results and determine new amounts of the other ingredients. Glad you enjoyed this recipe!
My bars cracked has they cooled. They still tasted good. But was wondering what caused it. I followed directions to a tee.
Hi Patricia, thank you for giving these bars a try! We usually don’t encounter cracking with these cheesecake bars, is it possible they could be over-baked? Try reducing the time slightly next time – just until the center no longer jiggles.
Hey Sally! I’m planning to make these for a bridal shower and was hoping to scale up to a 13×9 pan. Any recommendations for adjusting the ingredients and bake time? Thank you!
Hi Julie, 9×13 is the perfect size for doubling this recipe. We’re unsure of the bake time though. Let us know how it goes!
Instead of 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk, can you substitute 1/2 cup of egg beaters for the 2 whole eggs and add 1 egg yolk?
Hi Fran! We suggest sticking with the recipe as written for best results. Egg yolks are important for thickening and setting these bars.
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!
I think next time I will double the crust recipe so it can be thick and easier to hold the bars.
My only issue is I can’t seem to keep the cheesecake part from cracking. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?
I have used a glass Pyrex 7×11 and a ceramic 8×8 because that’s all I had on hand. Maybe a mug of water next to it in the oven will keep it moist? Am I baking it too long? I ended up having to do about 10-15 minutes extra before it stopped being jiggly. SOS!
5 stars tho!!!!
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for your kind review, we’re so glad you love these bars. We usually don’t encounter cracking with these cheesecake bars, is it possible they could be over-baked? Try reducing the time slightly next time – just until the center no longer jiggles.