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!
Keywords: lemon bars
Any recommendations for adjustments at altitude? I live in Colorado at about 4900 feet and I always have to bake them much longer than suggested. Any oven temp I should be using instead? I love the flavor, I just want to get the texture right now
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Hi Emily, we wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html We’re glad you’re enjoying this recipe!
Love this recipe! Have made it several times. Family favorite. If your follow the directions it will turn out great
★★★★★
I have made this recipe many times, but I have never used the melted butter in the crust. I have always used cold, cubed butter – then pulsed it in a food processor (like a pie crust). It has always been perfection. I took it to a family reunion & decided to try the melted butter. It was terrible. Crust was hard, nothing like a shortbread. I will continue making this, but not with melted butter.
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Sounds more like the issue was with your skills Nelly
#nevergiveup
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I am always in search of a good lemon bar recipe. This was perfect. Easy to follow, with just the amount of sweet and tart. I did, however, add zest from one lemon, because the tartar the better! I have saved this recipe and I will definitely be making it again. I knew to try your recipe for the lemon bars since I have made your chocolate chip oatmeal cookies over and over again and they are delicious as well.
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Recipe turned out great! Would definitely make again. Would only make changes more to my liking. A little less sugar and maybe a little bit of lemon zest for a more intense lemon flavor. Recipe was easy to follow, just have to have patience while the bars cool and chill!
Perfectly tart and lemony
★★★★★
The flavor is nice but overall it was an epic fail. As noted by others ( and it sounds like the last
commenter) the two layers inverted in the oven. All the lemon curd liquid added for the second
round of baking made the short bread float to the top during the baking process. I made as
written , even with holes poked. After baking and cooling I was able use the
parchment to flip the disaster right side up but lost a lot of custard on the paper (the liquid
lemon curd went partially under the parchment as well). The remaining custard was very
wet so the confectioner sugar sprinkled post cooling dissolved upon impact.
Since the parchment gives the short bread nothing to “grip” on to in the pan, it would seem to
me that the short bread would continue to float to the top during the custard baking process.
IF I make this again I will try a half batch and use no parchment. But then again, making
shortbread cups as noted by a previous commenter seems fool proof; maybe that is the way to go.
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I checked this about 5 minutes before it was supposed to be done, and the top was not jiggley, but slightly golden brown, and a little crusty. Is it going to be okay??? (I use an oven thermometer, and it was at 325°F.
Each oven is a little different, so it’s okay if yours baked up a bit quicker. From your description, it sounds like the bars were done. Hope you enjoyed them!
Can the filling and crust use substitute sweetener (Stevia, Erythritol or other) instead of sugar? If so, which is the best for this recipe?
Hi Janet! 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!
Thanks for responding so quickly about the sugar substitute. I made a test batch with sugar and it was delicious. I used your recommendation of reducing the sugar to 1-2/3 cups and it was the perfect tartness!!!
Very sour! I baked 5 minutes longer as well. Won’t be making again…
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Amazing recipe as usual. I added lemon zest because I love lemon flavor.
I’ve made lemon squares so many times and the only thing I can say is reverse the steps – make the custard first and then the crust. It gives the sugar time to dissolve and then it’s smoother
First time making lemon bars and easy to follow recipe and they were delicious.
★★★★★
Can I use an 8 x 8 pan if I halve the recipe.
Hi Fay, that should work – let us know how it goes!
Would I be able to make these in mini muffin tins for easy serving at an event?
Hi Sarah, we haven’t personally tried it but we’re sure you can! We recommend that you use mini cupcake liners so that they are easier to remove from the pan. You can also try to push the dough up the sides of the muffin tin to create the cups, if they don’t maintain their shape you can always press the middle down right after they come out of the oven. Let us know how it goes!
So I just pulled these out of the oven, and I have to say: they look fantastic. I ended up making 48 mini muffin cups of lemon bars, and I wanted to share what I did.
I followed the recipe as written, with just a few tweaks.
I added about a teaspoon of dough to each cavity in my muffin tins and used a shot glass to press the dough down. (For ease, I also used muffin liners too) I then used a ladle and filled the rest of the liner up with the lemon curd.
I adjusted the baking times a bit so that my bars didn’t burn. For the first round, they baked for around 15 minutes, and the second round baked for around 12 minutes.
I had quite a bit of dough and filling left so I made a mini pan of bars in a 6×6 baking dish with the leftovers.
These are everthing you said they would be. The shortbread crust is melt in your mouth and the lemon topping has so much lemon flavor. I want to thank you Sally for being so detailed on your recipes. I have followed them exactly and every recipe I have tried has come out fantastic. Thanks again Sally.
★★★★★
Thank you so much for the kind feedback, Sheila—we’re thrilled you enjoyed these lemon bars!
I made this recipe twice- once as written and once with GF flour and 1/4 c vanilla yogurt instead of each egg (for a friend with allergies). The Gf/EF one took twice as long to bake (without eggs to help it set that’s pretty normal) and the filling was more white due to the yogurt but the taste and texture were really good!
The ones I made as written inverted in the oven, even with holes poked. I’m trying again today because they tasted fantastic either way. Thanks for another yummy recipe!
★★★★★
I made a batch of your lemon curd, can I somehow use that to make these lemon bars?
Hi Rebecca, we don’t recommend it. Lemon curd is too thin and won’t bake up properly. Best to follow the recipe as written for best results!
I would love to make these ahead and freeze for a graduation party. How much time should I allow for them to thaw in the fridge?
Hi Emily, overnight is best!
when i cooked the lemon bars with the filling, the bars came out looking like cake bars. I only had 1 large lemon and not 4 lemons. I think that might be why it came out like that.
Taste is great! I love these!! One problem, and an interesting one at that, my crust was rather pockmarked by the end of baking it with the filling on – and the crust ended up on top! I don’t know how that happened (I halved the recipe approximately to fit an 8 x 8 pan but I’m not sure that was the correct thing to do) but I will make this recipe again to see if I can figure it out!
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Hi Justin! 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 prick the crust with a fork (see the end of step 2)? This should help prevent this issue as well.
I have made these lemon bars in the past, and they are soooo yummy! Wanting to make them again and curious about making them ahead of time. How long will they stay fresh in the fridge?
PS- You are my go to blog for all things sweet and baking. I feel like you are my great baking friend that always has the recipe I’m after. Thank you for bringing so much goodness into my kitchen over the years!!
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Hi Katie! Thank you so much for making and trusting our recipes. Cover and store lemon bars in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Wait to sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar until just before serving.
I made the mistake of cutting slits in my parchment paper on the corners of my 9×13 so that the paper would fold easier into the pan. Unforunately, some of the lemon filling crept down and ended up cooking at the bottom under the parchemtn paper all underneath. Don’t do what I did! lol
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I just made these for the first time for a teacher appreciation luncheon at my daughter’s school. Oh my – these lemon bars are SO GOOD!! Need to make them again ASAP for my family
★★★★★
Absolutely the best lemon bars I’ve ever had. I made them for a gathering and everyone simply love them. This recipe is so easy to follow and error free. Thank you so much Sally for inspiring me to make your recipes. They are absolutely divine. Cheers to you.
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This was my first attempt at making lemon bars and they were delicious! My whole family loved them. I’m so glad I found your recipe. It’s a keeper!
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These did not turn out well. I think 1 cup of lemon juice is too much. They’re very sticky
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So, the lemon filling went through the shortbread crust so my bars were lemon, shortbread, more lemon. I really would like to know where I went wrong. I’ve always had great success with your recipes
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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 prick the crust with a fork (see the end of step 2)? This should help prevent this issue as well.
You may want to let them cool for longer!
I have made these lemon bars and they are amazing! I have leftover frozen mango chunks and I’m thinking of using mango puree instead of lemon juice. Do you think that would work and should I reduce the flour or eggs in the filling?
Hi Maria, we haven’t tested that substitution and it would likely take a bit of tinkering like you mention. Let us know if you do any experimenting!
Always love using this recipe! Turns out great every time. I even use dairy free butter so my dairy free family members can enjoy them as well.
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