This vintage recipe creates Lemon Bars with a delicate shortbread crust topped with a tart-sweet, perfectly gooey lemon custard. They are surprisingly quick and easy to make and turn out beautifully every time!
These easy Lemon Bars are the perfect light, bright dessert for anytime of year. If you love lemon desserts, you’ll also love my Lemon Tart recipe.
We’ve all eaten many lemon bars and I’m sure that many of you have baked them multiple times. The recipe I’m sharing today, however, is my mom’s, and it is spectacular.
These bars were always on Mom’s Christmas baking list but I make them all year long. They are a bright, pretty choice for Easter and the perfect light dessert for spring and summer entertaining.
Table of contents
The Best Lemon Bars
There are a couple of important things that make this recipe for Lemon Bars a little different from most other recipes out there.
Mom’s crust recipe calls for powdered sugar in place of granulated sugar. I did not understand the significance of this seemingly small difference until I grew old and wise and realized I should always trust my mother. It does something magical and wondrous to the texture of the crust that reminds me of delicate, flaky shortbread. I’ll never make them any other way!
I’ve also found that using both the juice and zest from Meyer lemons instead of regular lemons creates the best flavor in the custard filling. They are naturally sweeter, far juicier, and the best choice when available. Thankfully, I’ve been seeing them through most of the year at our local grocery store.
Ingredient Notes
- Shortbread crust: Salted butter, powdered sugar, and all-purpose flour.
- Lemon filling: Eggs, granulated sugar, salt, fresh lemon juice and zest, and all-purpose flour. While Meyer Lemons are always my first choice you can absolutely make these bars with regular lemons and they will be delicious.
Useful Kitchen Equipment
Microplane/Zester: A must have item for zesting citrus and so much more! Use it for grating garlic cloves, ginger root, spices like nutmeg, and Parmesan cheese. You can also use it to create chocolate shavings for decorating desserts.
Citrus Juicer: This handy kitchen tool allows you to easily squeeze every last bit of juice from your lemons and limes while catching all the seeds.
Dusting Wand: This inexpensive tool is best way to neatly sprinkle powedered sugar over recipes like this one. I use it every time I make Lemon Bars, Brioche French Toast, Gingerbread Cake, and everything else I garnish with powdered sugar.
How to Make Easy Lemon Bars
- Shortbread crust: In a large bowl, combine the crust ingredients with an electric mixer until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Bake the crust: Press the mixture down into an ungreased 13- x 9-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F until lightly golden brown around the edges.
- Lemon filling: While the base layer is baking, whisk together the filling ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add filling and bake: Pour the lemon filling over the shortbread crust while it is still warm from the oven. Then, bake it until the topping appears to be set and is just beginning to lightly brown.
After baking, there may be some blemishes, bubbles, or brown spots on the top of the lemon filling. This is not an issue at all since the entire thing will be dusted with powdered sugar.
- Cool completely: Allow the bars to cool completely at room temperature.
- Dust with powdered sugar: Sprinkle the top of the cooled Lemon Bars with powdered sugar. This is done easily with a dusting wand.
FAQ and Valerie’s Tips
The sugar in the lemon filling can caramelize and some of it may rise to the surface creating a slightly crispy, granular top layer. If you notice this, don’t be concerned! The last step of sprinkling the top with powdered sugar will disguise it and if anything, it will just add to the wonderful texture of the bars.
The lemon filling will be thin when you pour it over the hot crust, but it should thicken nicely as it bakes. Be sure to follow the directions and add the correct amount of flour to the filling and allow the lemon bars to cool completely at room temperature before slicing. Remember, lemon bars are intended to be gooey so they will not thicken completely.
You don’t need to grease the baking dish as there is an ample amount of butter in the crust. However, the edges where the filling hits the pan can get a little sticky. Just rinse a sharp knife with hot water and run it around the edges of the pan to loosen them. If the knife becomes sticky with filling while slicing the bars, rinse it in hot water in between slices.
Storage Tips
- Packaging: After dusting the cooled bars with powdered sugar, cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap or transfer the Lemon Bars to a separate airtight container. If you need to stack the lemon bars in the container, place parchment paper or wax paper between the layers to prevent sticking.
- Refrigerate: Since the gooey lemon filling contains eggs, it’s best to keep Lemon Bars refrigerated to prevent bacterial growth. If stored properly, they will stay fresh for up to a week.
- Freeze: Allow the bars to cool completely, then slice into squares and flash freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet until frozen solid. At that point the bars can be wrapped in foil or plastic wrap and placed in a freezer-safe zippered plastic storage bag and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw the completely in the refrigerator before dusting with powdered sugar and serving.
More Lemon Recipes You’ll Love
- Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake
- Lemon Zucchini Coffee Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
- Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
- Limoncello Cookies
- Browse my full collection of dessert recipes and muffin and quick bread recipes for more baking inspiration.
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Easy Lemon Bars
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Lemon Filling
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice, from 2 to 3 lemons (use Meyer lemons, if possible)
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, use an electric hand mixer to blend together the softened butter, 2 cups flour and ½ cup powdered sugar. Mix for about 3 minutes until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9- x 13-inch baking dish (glass is best). Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden at the edges.
- While the base layer is baking prepare the lemon filling. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the eggs well. Add 2 cups granulated sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt and whisk to combine. Whisk in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Finally, whisk in ¼ cup flour until well incorporated. Pour the filling over the warm, baked crust. Return to the oven for an additional 18 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees F until topping appears to be set and is just beginning to lightly brown.
- Allow to cool completely then sprinkle the surface liberally with powdered sugar. Slice into squares and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
More Easy Baking
This post was originally published on January 17, 2013. It has been updated with new text and images.
We have a lemon tree and always looking for lemon recipes and with a spouse that has a sweet tooth and loves lemon meringue pie, these are by far the BEST lemon bars either of us have tasted and I have made many different recipes. By far this are the best JUST LOVE THEM (I did add a 1/2 t vanilla in the filling but don’t know if it made any difference). Be careful as if et one bar, you will eat a second bar!!!
I agree! I think they’re absolutely the BEST. 🙂 Thanks so much, Gail.
A complete mess. Followed directions exactly but even after additional bake time, ended up with raw crust, runny interior and very thin overall. Likely into the trash. What a shame as I used fresh picked lemons.
I’m sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve made this family recipe as written and I’ve never once had any of the issues you described. I can only assume the crust was not baked long enough or at the correct temperature on the first bake. As for the the filling being too thin, I addressed this question in the FAQ Section – “The lemon filling will be thin when you pour it over the hot crust, but it should thicken nicely as it bakes. Be sure to follow the directions and add the correct amount of flour to the filling and allow the lemon bars to cool completely at room temperature before slicing. Remember, lemon bars are intended to be gooey so they will not thicken completely.”