You only need 7 ingredients to make these lemon bars. The lemon curd filling is extra thick and creamy and sits on an irresistible buttery 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. For extra flavor, add some fresh zest as well.
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 desserts are always a great choice when looking for springtime or Easter dessert recipes.
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Lemon 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) fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest, optional
- 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 and lemon zest (if using) 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!
Reader Comments and Reviews
Could I use confectioners sugar instead of granulated sugar for the shortbread crust?
Hi Mack, The crust will be a little drier and more crumbly including both confectioners’ sugar and flour. If using confectioners’ sugar, try slightly reducing the amount of flour.
These are absolutely delicious. Really easy to make which was surprising. I was so intimidated to make these and they were a huge hit! Be sure to not over mix the egg / lemon mixture. I got too much air incorporated in my mixture. Still tasted great just didn’t look as pretty.
What if you don’t have glass 13×9, then what?
Hi Mitzi, do you have a 9-inch square glass baking pan? See the recipe Notes for instructions on halving the recipe.
I made these dairy free by using vegan butter and my gosh, they’re perfect. I wondered is it possible to cook the lemon mixture on an stovetop into a lemon curd to have on scones? Would it work in this capacity?
Hi Jessica, we’d follow this lemon curd recipe instead!
I have made these lemon bars twice. First with regular yellow lemons and then again with Myer Lemons. I liked the clean fresh taste of the regular lemons best. The only thing about this recipe is that these lemon bars are intensely lemon flavored. I really like that. The rest of my family and grandkids, not so much as the flavor is just to intense for them. That’s fine with me as I will just freeze the excess bars and use them as I like.
These bars turned out perfectly! My adult son asked for lemon bars in lieu of the birthday cake I make all my kids each year, and he wanted them tart. I followed the recipe exactly except for using salted butter and reducing the added salt. The crust was a little hard to cut and very sturdy, but he liked that, plus it got a bit softer every day with the moisture from the curd transferring, which kept them stable until they were done. The lemon was tart enough and sweet enough andthe shortbread crust complimented it perfectly! This recipe is a keeper! Thanks Sally!
If halving the recipe would you still use a glass baking dish?
Hi Chip, yes, glass is best here regardless of the size.
Thank you for your quick response! Glass pan it is then!
Hi there! When I make this recipe, a foam appears when mixing the eggs followed by lemon juice. The foam doesn’t always disappear while baking and I am left with a white top.
What do you think is happening? and how to fix it?
Hi Daryl, if too much air is incorporated into the lemon filling mixture, there can be a layer of foamy film on top. Be careful not to over-mix or whip the filling when combining and be careful not to over-bake the bars. These tips should help! Some air bubbles are normal, see “White Air Bubbles on Top of Baked Lemon Bars” above.
What serving size/ bar size are you cutting these bars into? I’d like to make mini (2 inch) bars but I’m not sure what that with yield with current recipe. TY
Hi Sara! The recipe as written yields 24 bars.
I took these to a work potluck yesterday and they totally stole the show! A few notes based on my own experience:
– I did the whole thing in the food processor and it could not have been easier! Didn’t even bother cleaning it between the crust and the filling since a little butter residue certainly isn’t going to hurt a custard. I blitzed the dry ingredients for the filling for almost a full minute before I added the wet to make sure the lemon zest was really worked into the sugar, and it also eliminated the sifting/clumping issue mentioned in the recipe notes. Because I used a scale, I could add ingredients right into the food processor, meaning I only used one bowl. Love that.
– I baked my crust a bit longer than the recipe called for to make sure it was cooked through enough, probably about 35 minutes. I also turned the oven up to 375 for the last 5-7 minutes. Maybe it wasn’t necessary, but I just didn’t want there to be any raw flour taste, and I wasn’t too worried about getting color on the shortbread since it was just going to get covered with lemon custard anyway. My oven temp is pretty accurate.
– I was worried the crust would be a little greasy based on the way the dough looked from using melted butter, but in the end it was totally fine, so don’t fear.
Absolute winner of a recipe. Would and almost certainly will make again.
Pretty much perfect! It’s very sweet so potentially you could reduce the sugar sliiightly but overall it’s a good balance for the sourness of the lemon. I baked the crust at 350 for the same amount of time and it came out great and not greasy or soggy. I’d recommend letting the filling mixture sit for 5-10 minutes after whisking to allow some of the bubbles to dissipate. I also strained the filling before pouring it over the crust which helps catch any tiny lumps of flour.
Made 100 of these for a graduation party today, and everyone freaked out! They were wiped out in the first half hour! Thank you for the great recipe! Definitely going in my saved recipe file!!
So I made these yesterday. They were delicious!
I experimented and very finely chopped 2 TBS basil and sprinkled into half the lemon mixture before baking. The flavor turned out terrific! Someone said it reminded them of Italy and lemoncello.
My mom would make these for me all of the time and they are delicious! I’ve just found out I have celiac disease. Can gluten free 1-to-1 flour be substituted to make this gluten free?
Hi Kristen, we haven’t tested it, but a few readers have reported success using that swap. Let us know if you try it!
I did. I used Bobs Red Mill 1:1 and it came out excellent!
I loved them! Easy to make. But my daughter said they turn out too sweet. Maybe next time I will use less sugar. I will just eat these myself.
This is a great recipe! Is it possible to make these bars gluten free with very similar results? Also… I’d like to know your preferred gluten free flour when baking? Rice flour? Almond flour? Does it just depend on the recipe?
BTW- your recipes are the best! I have one of your books and pre-ordered a signed copy of your new book for my daughter. We love your site.
Thank-you for doing what you do!
Hi Barbara, thank you so much for your kind note and support! Admittedly, our team does not have a ton of experience with gluten free baking. Although some readers report using an all-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour in many of our recipes with success, you should expect slightly different results anytime you substitute ingredients. Almond flour, oat flour, rice flour, etc. all have different baking properties than all-purpose flour and aren’t always a 1:1 swap, so we generally recommend trying a all-purpose 1:1 gluten free flour if you can. Let us know if you do any experimenting!
This recipe even though it’s an easy one to put together it didn’t turned out all that great; I guess just like some of the previous reviews.
The dough took forever to bake, and it turned out with good flavor but, hard. The mixture I ended up using 8 lemons instead of the 4 ( to equal 1 cup) and they were pretty large.
The taste? Not good, I feel like I can taste the eggs even though the lemon flavor is there.
Question? I was just given a recipe and it calls for only 4 Tbsp of lemon juice. Why a cup on this recipe? The rest of the ingredients are not far from your recipe.
I have tried and baked multiple times some of your other recipes with no problem, this one was bit disappointing!
Hi Wanda, thank you so much for your honest feedback, and I’m really sorry this recipe didn’t meet your expectations, especially since you’ve had success with others from my site. The strong lemon flavor (and higher lemon juice amount) is intentional here, since these bars are meant to be tangy and bold—true lemon lovers usually enjoy that punch. Recipes that use only a few tablespoons of juice tend to be much more subtle in flavor. And thank you for your note on the crust. I wonder if you over-baked it, which is why it was hard. I truly appreciate you giving the recipe a try, and I’m always here to help troubleshoot if you’d like to give them another go.
Do you make the filling while the shortbread is baking or wait until the shortbread comes out of the oven?
Hi Thresa, while the shortbread is baking.
These are fantastic! They came together so quickly and have such a bright lemony taste! I’ll definitely make these again
Would the lemon flavor be enhanced if I add lemon zest? If so, how much should I add?
Hi Rosalva, we prefer super smooth lemon bars here, but you definitely can add lemon zest! We recommend 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon zest. Enjoy!
Are there any adjustments that need to be made in doubling this recipe for 2 separate pans?
Hi Brooke, for best results, we recommend making separate batches rather than doubling.
So so good and super lemony!!!
Turned out perfectly ! I turned the oven temp up about 5 degrees for the crust and the full dessert but other than taking a lot longer to bake, the recipe was great. Lots of compliments at the Mother’s Day table.
Aww. My first bomb with Sally’s recipes. Sooo eggy smelling and tasting. My kids would not eat. I’m hearing that the egg whites may be the culprits. What if I use 3 whole eggs and three yolks? Would it change the integrity of the whole finished product?
I’m sure glad I made a test batch before Mother’s Day.
Please help.
Always a fan,
Camilla
Hi Camilla, they could be over-baked if they taste eggy. If you try them again try shortening the bake time. Decreasing the eggs will prevent the curd from setting up, so we don’t recommend it unless you also try adjusting the flour in the curd as well. (Or add a bit of cornstarch.) Thanks so much for giving these a try!
In the past when I’ve made lemon bars and did not refrigerate them right away, they did have an achy taste. The fix was putting them in the refrigerator overnight and they tasted great the next day!
Agreed with other commenters. The shortbread dough was completely liquid, and after I tried to bake it I ended up with a greasy disgusting mess. It’s weird that it’s pretty far from the 1:2:3 usual shortbread ratio. I re-made the base with that ratio for the shortbread and the lemon filling was delicious, but unfortunately the recipe as it stands was my first miss from Sally.
I’ve made these bars. They are the BOMB!!! So, so good! I’ve also made the key lime pie bars, also so good. But what I want to make next is a key lime bar that has the more “jelly” texture of these bars, and not the “fluffy” texture of the key lime pie bars. If I try that, would you recommend the shortbread crust or a graham cracker crust?
Hi Mike, We are so happy you enjoyed these. If you love this texture, you can simply replace the lemon with the same amount of lime in this recipe. If you want to try a graham cracker crust like the key lime bars, just be sure to double it for a 9×13 pan per the recipe notes. Let us know what you try!
Absolutely delicious, does anyone have an approximate calorie count on a 9x 13 batch cut into 9 bars?
Hi K, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
These taste absolutely delicious but after combining flour, sugar, eggs and lemon juice, I ended up with foam in the mixture, and was hoping for a smooth texture… the whole lemon filling also somehow transferred over to the bottom of the pan after baking … what did I do wrong? 🙁
Hi Maggie, 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. Hope this helps!
Hi Sally. These taste absolutely fantastic, but I’ve made them three times and the shortbread crust has been too hard to cut with a fork, so they need to be eaten more like a cookie (handheld). I’m following the recipe exactly but I must be doing something wrong. I tried taking them out of the oven a little sooner last time, but then the lemon filling wasn’t firm enough. Any thoughts, or are they not supposed to be eaten with a fork?
Thank you!
Hi Anne, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. How are you measuring your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured, which can cause the crust to become hard and dry. You can also try slightly decreasing the pre-bake time for the crust. Many people do eat them hand-held style, but it’s really up to your preference. Hope this helps and thanks for giving this recipe a try!
First time trying this recipe, and I can say this: I’ve made many different recipes of Lemon Bars/Squares over the years, and none of them had had this much bright flavour with a beautifully textured base of shortbread! This will be my go-to recipe from now on, when I’m looking to satisfy that lemon craving!
Can you bake these in a sheet pan?
Hi Susan, you could try doubling the recipe for a sheet pan. We’re unsure of the exact bake time.