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!
The lemon curd was not thick at all so I could not pour it over the shortbread – it just absorbed all of it.
Hi Tara, did you pre-bake the shortbread crust and poke holes in the crust after baking (but before pouring the lemon curd filling)? We find those two steps crucial for ensuring the crust holds up and doesn’t absorb all the filling. Let us know if we can help troubleshoot further!
Yes, I did pre-bake it as well as poke holes in the crust. The shortbread turned out very well but the lemon curd did not thicken, so there was nothing left to bake once I poured it on.
Perfect, easy and delicious recipe. I loved that it only required 7 ingredients, and no machinery required. Upon reading some of the one star reviews, I was a little concerned that the bars would be bland, so I added only a teaspoon of zest into the lemon juice, and a pinch of salt to the filing mixture. Otherwise, I prepared the recipe faithfully (whisking in the eggs one by one). Huge hit with everyone! Saved and will be made again.
I took mine out once it stopped jiggling and as it was cooling at room temperature my bars have a huge crack down the middle. There’s also some liquid running in the cracks. What did I do wrong?
Hi Joshua! Lemon bars are an egg-heavy dessert, like cheesecake, so they’re prone to cracking. They’re either cracking because the eggs are over-mixed (more air is whipped into the filling, then deflates causing the cracking) or they’re over-baked. One easy way to help guarantee no cracks, though, is to cool the lemon bars inside the oven. Turn the oven off 1-2 minutes before the lemon bars have finished cooking. Crack open the oven door and let the lemon bars cool inside the cooling oven for 1 hour. Then remove from the oven and cool at room temperature. The slow cooling will help prevent cracks. Hope this helps!
Can you sub for gluten free flour?
Hi Rachel, we haven’t tested a gluten-free version of these bars, but some readers have reported success using a 1:1 gluten-free flour swap (like Bob’s Red Mill or Cup4Cup). Let us know if you do give them a try!
Was craving something lemony sweet and this receipt looked perfect .. was my time making and it all came together pretty easily. Biggest difference was the bake times. At 24 min the crust was still not tan not anywhere close to brown but I didn’t want to over bake so I pulled it and let it continue cooking in the pan. This seemed to help form it a bit but still slightly under baked will be trying a longer bake time next time
For the filling, it was still completely liquid and sloshing around at 23 min. I put it on for another 20 (checking every 5-10 min) and after the full 20 it was finally firm enough. I noticed other commenters also bake for 30-40 min which I’ll definitely be allocating next time
Overall great lemony taste and I defiantly recommend freshhhh lemons. Really apms up the taste
Haven’t tried this recipe yet but excited to because of one thing, no lemon zest. I know people will swear to me that if you zest them clean its not bitter but it is. I dont care what people say lemon zest is bitter not sour like the fruit. I find the same thing with pure lemon extract and im guessing they dont have pith in there either.
One question I have is has anyone tried using corn starch to thicken the curd instead of flour. It is my normal preference. If so how much did you use as its not usually a one to one substitute? Thanks
Hi Beth, we haven’t tested this recipe with cornstarch instead of flour, so we can’t give you a confident answer here. We fear 1:1 would be too much, so if you do decide to experiment, we’d start with less cornstarch. If you give anything a try, let us know how it goes. Hope you enjoy the bars!
Then something wasn’t quite right. Sounds like your crust wasn’t pre baked or done baking. As far as filling to taste rich you really have to find an orchard or farmers market. This recipe gets me rave reviews , I do hope this helps.
I took another commenter’s suggestion to mix lemon zest with the sugar for the filling and I am sorry to report that it scrambled in the oven 🙁 I wonder if I used too much zest, or the oven was too hot?
I’m mystified at what people could have done wrong to have the complaints they have. I made exactly as directed and they came out exactly as expected. Shortbread is shortbread — you all know that’s a very simple, plain cookie, right? The lemon curd is powerfully lemony, or is with fresh lemons. There was no flour taste in my curd. And they baked perfectly in 26 minutes in my oven. No jiggle, and the texture when cooled and cut was perfect. Blame the cooke, not the recipe, for any problems anyone has with these.
So delicious and easy. My only problem was that when i took them out of the fridge to serve, they seemed wet and the powdered sugar just kept disappearing. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hi Dana! That is normal — feel free to add the powdered sugar after the bars are totally cool next time or right before serving. Glad you enjoyed these!
I tried the half version of this recipe and had a few issues, wondering why they happened. The crust seemed pretty bland and a bit soggy, the lemon portion tasted great but smelled so strongly of eggs that I wasn’t able to eat it. Any ideas on what could have gone wrong?
Hi Richa! The crust should firm up as the bars cool, otherwise you can add a couple minutes to the pre-bake time next time. Additionally, they could be over-baked if they taste eggy. If you try them again try shortening the bake time of the assembled bars. Thanks for giving these a try!
This us really delicious. This was my first time making this and I will definitely be making it again. Very tangy and sweet.
These look amazing. I love the recipe and the way you explain why you do things. Most people don’t bother to explain when that’s the most important thing. Thanks for the recipe, I can’t wait to try it.
Never fails me !!! Oh my goodness what can I say about these lemon bars ?! They are SO good. Never lets me down. I always get asked for the recipe. I haven’t been disappointed with any of your recipes !! From bars to muffins to cookies , I know I can expect some serious deliciousness when I follow your recipes !!
Thanks so much !!
These are fun and delicious. Very lemony. Not sure what the other folks were using, but I’d guess it was not real lemons. Crust is luscious. I used tapioca instead of flour to thicken the lemon (no or less lumps), and I also did not use the egg whites! Like in Lemon Merangine Pie, only use the yolk. I’ll try the whites next time, but this worked great. Was done in 25 minutes. (And I could eat it in 10 mins!) (high altitude)
I have made these every time since i found this recipe 2 years ago. Perfect Every Time!! I am always asked for the recipe which i gladly share. Thank you so much for sharing it.
I’ve made these lemon bars a few times and every time they’ve turned out delicious!! My bf loves them!
I finally got around to making these. Absolutely delicious! I made one adjustment and that was to zest 2 lemons into the sugar and pulsing in the food processor. I let the lemon infused sugar for about 20-30 minutes, before adding it into the eggs and flour. I love the lemony zing. Thank you for sharing the recipe and tips!
Oh, I forgot to mention I also halfed the recipe as I didn’t have a big enough pan.
Hi Sally,
I made these bars last night and I have to say they were absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe.
Hey, what is the quantity for 8X8 pan? Thanks!
Hi Kim, You can follow the directions in the recipe notes for making half of the recipe but use your 8×8 pan instead. Follow the same bake time as the 9×9 pan.
These lemon bars are fantastic-they remind me of the lemon bars my Mom made. They are delicious straight from the freezer-very refreshing
Great recipe! Made these for our first office potluck since the Pandemic, and they were a huge hit! After reading some of the other comments, I did add an extra step and poured the filling through a sieve to catch any small bits of egg or flour that didn’t fully incorporate, creating an ultra smooth and silky filling to add to the warm crust. Overall a great lemony dessert, perfect for a summer treat!
I was so disappointed with these I read the recipe aswell as the tips and then read the reviews so I was licking my lips when I finally got round to making them. I made them before work and when I got home I tucked in, so bland absolutely lacking any flavour whatsoever. Might be wiser to add more vanilla essence and lemon zest.
Hi James, did you make any changes like reducing the sugar or lemon juice? Are your lemons fresh? That’s so strange that these lemon bars would be bland!
I will be making this recipe again! It was easy, didn’t use a lot of utensils or ingredients , and the result is very very good! The crust is so much easier to make and to spread in the pan than other lemon bar recipes’ crusts! I appreciate the ingredients (esp flour) weights given in grams, since I find that method more precise and consistent. The tartness is just right, and they are very nice looking, just like the photo. My teen commented that they tasted a bit “floury” from undercooking the base, but I didn’t notice that. I will admit I didn’t cook until “lightly browned.”(poor lighting by the oven made shadows). I might omit the vanilla next time. I wonder if a slightly less sweet crust might compliment the luscious tangy filling better. Thank you for all the notes! They are very helpful.
I’m think the bars might be best refrigerated and then returned to almost room temperature, but I dislike biting into something cold with my front teeth.
Mine cooked in just under 30 minutes, 325° convection. I cut into 24 pieces.
I love this recipe and have used it so many times, but the only thing that has been consistent for me is that this will not be done baking in 26 minutes! I have yet to have it be done baking in under 40 minutes, and I’ve baked it in multiple ovens. It’s still a great recipe , and my favorite variation is with grapefruit ~
Loved these, super easy to make and they were delicious. Very lemony, which I loved. Will def make these again!
Loved this recipe! I made these for a small gathering at my house and everyone loved them. I especially loved the crust.
One of the first recipes I hd tried of Sally’s with lemons growing in my grandmother’s garden. It is a quick foolproof recipe
Mushy shortbread that floated to the top. I’ve made tons of lemon bars and never had that happen. Followed the recipe exactly and everything. Disappointed.
Hi Caroline, we’re so sorry to hear that this recipe didn’t work out for you. Usually when the bars end up inverted it’s because we either over-baked the crust or let it cool for too long. We have, however, found an easy trick to help prevent this. If you ever want to try this recipe again, use a fork to poke holes into the warm crust after you take it out of the oven. This helps the topping stick to it and holds the crust in place (below the filling). Hope this is helpful!
These were delicious! My first time ever making them and everyone at Mother’s Day dinner enjoyed them!
Turned out great! My mom loved them for Mother’s Day. Idk if anyone said this already, but I didn’t have a 9×13 pan so I used an 8×8 instead. Had to add about 15 mins to each bake & the bars were kinda thick, but still great! I have a 9×9 too. Next time I might try that one. There was some definite concern that the pan might overflow, but it didn’t. lol