If you are a lemon lover, you will love the bright, tart creaminess of these Perfect Lemon Bars. (I may love them even better than Iced Lemon Cookies!) The shortbread crust is just the right texture and makes the perfect base for the lemon filling. Sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar, it’s the perfect dessert! I like to serve these in individual white cupcake liners for parties; they look great and are less messy.
Make sure to try the Key Lime bar variation in the notes – they’re divine!
Perfect Lemon Bars
Servings
20-24
barsPrep time
20
minutesCooking time
35
minutesIngredients
- For the shortbread crust:
1 cup butter, softened
dash of salt
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups flour
- For the filling:
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup flour
2 cups sugar
juice of 2 small lemons OR 6 Tbsp bottled lemon juice
zest of one lemon
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Directions
- To make the shortbread crust:
- Preheat oven to 350° F. and line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, salt, powdered sugar and flour. Mix well.
- Press mixture evenly into the parchment-lined pan, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill for 10 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden in color. Allow to cool a bit while making the filling.
- For the filling:
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, sugar, lemon juice, and zest.
- Pour over the crust and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
- Cut into squares and dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Notes
- To make Key Lime Bars: Use key lime juice and zest, instead of the lemon juice and zest in the recipe above. I can never find fresh key limes so I use Nellie & Joe’s bottled key lime juice and the zest of one regular lime.
- Gently massage the lemons before slicing by rolling them across a cutting board, pressing with the palm of your hand. This helps softens the lemons and makes it much easier to extract the juice.
- 1 small lemon = 3 Tbsp fresh juice, 1 medium lemon = 4 Tbsp fresh juice, 1 large lemon = 5 Tbsp fresh juice.
So easy to make! I love these and could eat a while pan all by myself in one sitting.
They’re super easy. I’m glad you like them. I’d eat a whole pan too so I make them either when a big crowd comes over or I give some away to friends. They never seem to mind!