Best Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust
Jun 25, 2021, Updated Aug 13, 2024
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The Best Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust featuring a super easy shortbread crust and thick layer of delicious lemon filling. Eating feels like a burst of bright sunshine in your mouth.
This recipe has the perfect combination of buttery, tart, and sweet! They are the perfect sweet treat to bring to your next event or gathering! If you want to keep them all for yourself- I don’t blame you!
If you love lemon dessert make sure to try: Frozen Lemon Dessert (Creamy Lemony Treat) and Easy Lemon Yogurt Loaf.
Simple Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- Butter
- All purpose flour
- Powdered sugar
- Salt
Lemon Filling
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- All purpose flour
- Fresh lemon juice
- Lemon Zest
How to make Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust (Step by Step)
Make the shortbread dough. With an electric mixer, on medium speed, combine butter and sugar and beat until smooth.
Sift in salt and flour and mix on low seed to combine.
Dough will be a bit crumbly.
Pat dough into prepared baking pan and bake for 15 minutes.
Take out of oven and set aside to cool.
2. Make the lemon filling. With an electric mixer, on medium speed, mix the eggs and sugar until creamy texture and pale yellow in color.
Add the flour, baking powder, lemon juice, lemon zest and mix on low speed until smooth.
Pour mixture over prepared crust and bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool about 1 hour. Refrigerate for at least one to two hours.
Sprinkle top with extra powdered sugar. Cut into squares and serve!
How to Cut
Cool the baked lemon bars for 1 hour at room temperature on a wire cooling rack. Next, chill them in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
This will give you best results. The cooler they are, the easier they will be to cut.
If you’re making them for an every day snack, then you might not be too concerned about a clean cut, but if they’re for a special gathering and you want a nice clean cut, let them refrigerate up to 2 hours.
TOP TIPS
If you look at your bars after the recommended bake time, and the filling looks loose, runny, or too liquid, give them more time.
You’ll know your lemon bars are done when the edges are starting to turn golden, and the filling is set and no longer wobbly in the center.
They will also set a little more after they are cooled.
The best lemon bars!
Truth: I don’t love any other lemon bar. Period. I’ve tried many lemon bars and trust me, NONE compare. They are often too sweet, goopy, slimy, you name it, there is always something weird about other lemon bars.
If you love lemon, you will also enjoy this Italian Lemon Biscotti Recipe, Easy Lemon Tiramisu, and Lemon Curd!
To me, and anyone that has ever had these lemon bars, all vote the same- the are truly THE BEST!
Reasons you will love this recipe
- Slightly salty shortbread crust
- Soft filling that is not goopy or slimy like many lemon bar fillings
- Perfect crackle texture top
- Real lemon juice and lemon peel
- Easy to make and bring to a friend or gathering
Bonus: they are also easy to make. As my daughter, Amelie, likes to say, “easy peezy lemon squeezy!”
The Best Classic Easy Lemon Bars With Shortbread Crust Recipe – buttery crust and fresh and tangy lemon curd on top. Simple dessert, you can make any time of the year!
The best lemon bars recipe history
Davis Family Lemon Bar Story: ’50’s Bridge Club Lemon Bars
Here is another winning Davis family recipe that has been around since the 1950’s. My husbands grandmother would get together with her friends and play the card game “bridge” every week with a group of women.
Every week the women requested these lemon bars. These lemon bars are a WINNER for a reason, they are addicting with the perfect texture and delicious lemon flavor.
Lemon Bars that Connect Past and Present Generations
Grandma Rhea also made these lemon bars for her children and grandchildren and here we are making them today generations later!
I love recipes that connect us deeply to family and people from past to present.
The recipe becomes a thread that keep us connected to people even when they are far away or no longer with us. It’s an honor to share this delicious family recipe with all of you! Let me know if you make them in the comments!
Storing these easy lemon bars
REFRIGERATE: To store Lemon Bars, cool completely at room temperature, then store covered with plastic wrap in refrigerator for up to one week. Dust them with powdered sugar as you are serving them.
They are delicious served cold or let them come to room temperature before serving.
FREEZE: A great bar for freezing, simply cool completely at room temperature, then place cut squares in freezer-safe container. An additional layer of plastic wrap or foil around the container will give it added protection.
Thaw in refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before serving.
From my Cucina to Your Table. Mangia! Mangia! (Eat!)
Made with Amore, Elena
Lemon Bar FAQ’s
You can freeze lemon bars, and they should taste just as good after freezing as they do when they’re fresh. The most important part of freezing lemon bars is to make sure they stay moist and don’t dry out. Wrap them well and store in an airtight container in the freezer. Thaw in refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before serving.
If your lemon bars are too runny or jiggly, it is probably because the crust was under baked. Runny lemon bars – This is a common issue for people who are making lemon bars for the first time. Usually, it just means that you need to bake your bars longer. If your bars seem to brown at the edges, you can cover them with aluminum foil and turn down the heat.
Check for doneness with the “ jiggle test.” When you jiggle the pan, the lemon filling will wiggle slightly like firm jello—anything looser and your lemon bars will fall apart once you cut them and be runny; if they don’t wiggle at all, then the bars might be overcooked and grainy.
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This lemon bar recipe is everything a lemon treat should be – sweet and tangy lemon filling on top of a thick buttery shortbread crust. Bring these best lemon bars to your next event and everyone will want the recipe!
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BEST Easy Lemon Bars (Winning Recipe)
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 24 servings 1x
Description
These are the best lemon bars featuring an easy shortbread crust and thick layer of delicious lemon filling. This Easy Lemon Bar Recipe has the perfect combination of tart and sweet.
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- 2 sticks (1 cup/ 227 gr) butter
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (50 g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Lemon Filling
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- 4 tablespoons (36 g) all purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons (57.5 g) fresh lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9X13 in baking pan with butter.
- Make the shortbread dough. With an electric mixer, on medium speed, combine butter and sugar and beat until smooth. Sift in salt and flour and mix on low seed to combine. Dough will be a bit crumbly. Pat dough into prepared baking pan and bake for 15 minutes.
- Take out of oven and set aside to cool.
- In the meantime, make the lemon filling. With an electric mixer, on medium speed, mix the eggs and sugar until creamy texture and pale yellow in color. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon juice, lemon zest and mix on low speed until smooth.
- Pour mixture over prepared crust and bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool about 1 hour. Refrigerate for at least one to two hours. Sprinkle top with extra powdered sugar. Cut into squares and serve!
Notes
TOP TIPS
If you look at your bars after the recommended bake time, and the filling looks loose, runny, or too liquid, give them more time.
You’ll know your lemon bars are done when the edges are starting to turn golden, and the filling is set and no longer wobbly in the center. They will also set a little more after they are cooled.
If your lemon bars are too runny or jiggly, it is probably because the crust was under baked. Runny lemon bars – This is a common issue for people who are making lemon bars for the first time.
Usually, it just means that you need to bake your bars longer. If your bars seem to brown at the edges, you can cover them with aluminum foil and turn down the heat.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 40 min
- Category: Sweet/ Dessert
- Method: American
- Cuisine: American
You will love this classic lemon bar recipe. So much fresh lemon flavor. They aren’t overly sweet or dense. They are just right!
Wow! These are very tasty. Just what I was looking for in a lemon square. My only mistake was not baking them quite long enough. (I’m also working with a temperamental oven). I should have done a knife test. They were just a bit too wet even though the edges were lightly browned BUT the flavour was amazing. No need for the icing sugar on top but it does make them pretty!
I am happy you loved them! I hope you family loves them for years to come.