Our homemade lemon bar recipe combines a creamy lemon filling and a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread crust. Lots of fresh lemon juice and zest make these lemon bars so good!
I’m not sure I can convey how much I love these easy lemon bars (sometimes called lemon squares). Let’s start with the crust. If you’ve had shortbread cookies before, the crust in our recipe below will remind you of them. I love it so much that I’d be happy to eat the crust all by itself (it’s that good).
The real secret here is using plenty of fresh lemon juice and zest. The filling is creamy and tart, and it pairs perfectly with that buttery crust (which gets a little extra zest, too, for even more lemony goodness). If you’re as obsessed with lemon desserts as we are, you have to try our blueberry lemon cheesecake bars or this lemon blueberry cake next!
Key Ingredients
- Butter: Melted butter is the secret to our shortbread crust. Salted butter is perfect, but unsalted is fine. Just follow my tips for adding a bit of salt to our recipe below.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is perfect here, or use your favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour blend (I’d go for a store-bought 1:1 blend like those from Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour).
- Sugar: I use granulated sugar for the crust and lemon topping.
- Lemons: I usually buy 5 lemons when shopping for these lemon bars to make sure I have enough juice. You’ll use the zest of 1 to 2 lemons and the juice of 4 to 5 lemons. Extra lemony!!
- Eggs: These are the base of our creamy lemon filling.
- Vanilla: I add a bit of vanilla to make the crust taste even more delicious. I highly recommend it!
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Lemon Bars
Tip 1: Make lemon sugar. I firmly believe this is where our recipe gets so much of its lemony flavor. We rub lemon zest and a bit of vanilla into the sugar before using it to make our crust. As you rub the zest into the sugar, it turns a pale yellow and becomes fragrant. We love this trick so much that we use it for other recipes, like our blueberry scones made with lemon sugar.
Tip 2: Make the crust with melted butter. Most of the lemon bar recipes I’ve made in the past call for softened butter when making the crust. We prefer to use melted butter. It’s easier (yay!), but it also makes the crust a bit crispier, which I love with the creamy lemon filling. I prefer melted butter to softened butter in many of our recipes, including our shortbread cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and the topping for apple crisp.
Tip 3: Prebake your crust. Before adding the lemon bar filling, press the crust into your baking dish, then bake it until golden brown. This makes sure it sets and crisps before adding the wet filling, not that different from prebaking a graham cracker crust before adding a filling (like in our key lime pie recipe).
Tip 4: Let lemon bars cool before cutting. For perfect slices and that perfect creamy texture, let the bars cool completely. It’s hard, I know, but it makes a huge difference when slicing them. I usually slice into small bars or squares and dust the tops with powdered sugar.
More of Our Favorite Desserts
- Key Lime Pie
- Coconut Cream Pie
- Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
- Cookie Bars
- Blackberry Lemon Scones
- Lemon Meringue Pie (coming soon)
More Recipes with Lemon
We use a lot of lemons around here. If you have some lemons left over, we highly recommend our lemon chicken thighs, lemon dill chicken, lemon vinaigrette, or lemon herb zucchini salad.
Easy Lemon Bars
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
These easy homemade lemon bars have the most delicious shortbread crust and a creamy, tart lemon topping. Making the crust with melted butter is much easier than softened butter, which is common in other recipes. Don’t skip chilling the crust before baking, it really helps keep the crust crisp and crunchy.
You Will Need
Shortbread Crust½ cup granulated sugar (100 g)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (260 g)
12 tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled (170 g)
Lemon Filling1 ½ cups granulated sugar (300 g)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (25 g)
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons lemon zest
4 large eggs
¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, from 4 to 5 lemons (180 ml)
2 tablespoons powdered sugar for sifting tops of bars
Directions
1Prepare the baking pan: Line a straight-sided 13×9-inch metal baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. (This will help when removing the cooled bars from the pan.) Lightly coat the sides of the foil, but not the bottom, with non-stick cooking spray or extra melted butter to prevent the lemon topping from sticking.
2Make the crust: In a medium bowl, use a spatula or your fingers to rub ½ cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract together until moist and fragrant. Stir in 2 cups of flour and the melted butter until a crumbly, stiff dough forms.
3Form the crust: Press the dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking pan (it may not look like enough dough at first, but it will cover the bottom nicely). Prick the dough with a fork all over to prevent air bubbles while baking. Freeze the crust for 5 minutes or until firm (or refrigerate for 30 minutes).
4Preheat the oven: While the crust chills, position an oven rack near the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (162°C).
5Bake the crust: Bake the shortbread crust until lightly golden brown and set, 25 to 30 minutes.
6Make the lemon topping: While the crust bakes, stir the sugar, flour, salt, and 2 teaspoons of lemon zest. Whisk in the eggs until smooth, then whisk in the lemon juice.
7Bake the filling: Once the crust has baked, pour the lemon topping over the hot crust. Return the pan to the oven and increase the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake until the topping is set in the center and it no longer wiggles when the pan is moved, 20 to 25 minutes.
8Cool completely: Set the pan on a cooling rack and cool until the lemon bars are firm and the bottom of the pan is no longer warm, about 1 hour. (You can speed this up by placing the bars into the refrigerator once the pan is no longer hot).
9Cut the lemon bars: Once cooled, use the foil overhang to carefully lift the bars from the pan and place them on a cutting board. Peel away the foil, then cut the bars into 16 or 32 small bars. Sift the powdered sugar over the bars.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Place the cooled and cut lemon bars in an airtight container lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for up to one week. Freeze for up to 3 months.
- Butter: I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted. For unsalted butter, add ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt to the crust.
- Measuring your flour: Fluff the flour in its container, then gently scoop it into your measuring cup until slightly mounded. Level off the top with a knife for accurate measuring. For even more accuracy, use a scale and measure the flour by weight (in grams).
- Crust recipe inspired by Fine Cooking’s shortbread crust.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
9×13 pan makes a large amount, Can I make half a recipe and use an 8×8 plan? Thank you.
Hi Darlene, You can cut this recipe in half.
Please show a picture of how to press dough into pan. I am a novice baker.
These are the best lemon bars I’ve ever made. The balance between sweet and tart is perfect. I increased the filling by 1/3 of the recipe bc I like a thicker filling layer: 400g sugar, ~33g flour, rounded 1/4 tsp salt, 3 tsp zest, 5 large eggs (~304g), 240 ml lemon juice.
Wow, that’s amazing Mara! Thanks for coming back and letting us know!
My foodie grandson said it need more lemon taste but him and his dad ate the whole thing.
Oh wow, they must really like lemons 🙂 You can always bump up the lemon zest.
I made these lemon bars today, and they were so easy to make, and turned out absolutely delicious. I will definitely be making these on repeat!
That’s wonderful, Mena. Thank you for coming back.
Yummy Yummy Yummy! I love lemon bars and these are so tasty. People always rave about them.
That’s wonderful! Thank you for coming back and letting us know you enjoyed the lemon bars!
Can I make the lemon bars in Individual tart cups?
Yes, great idea.
I have loved these lemon bars for YEARS! When my boyfriend recently had to transition to a gluten free diet, I couldn’t help but wonder if GF flour would work here. After making them last night, I can say for certain that this recipe held up perfectly with no gluten.
what kind of GF flour did you use?
I made these bars many times since discovering the recipe a couple years ago. They are consistently awesome. In my opinion, using a lot of FRESH lemon juice is key. I love the tartness.
I made these tonight and they are a huge hit! I’m going to go with lime next. Thanks! 😊
This is my go-to recipe for lemon bars! I’ve been making them since I discovered your blog last summer, and I decided to finally leave a review when I came back to make a batch today. Absolutely delicious, with a no-fail crust that’s both crisp and full of flavor, and a lemon filling that sets perfectly every time. Lemon bars are my absolute favorite dessert and I can’t tell you how happy I am to have your recipe! Plus I have to mention, this is the only recipe I’ve found that I don’t have to double thanks to the 9×13 pan. Thank you thank you thank you ?
Would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Thank you.
I enjoy baking and I also work with cops. These are requested often and a must for special events. I follow the recipe and haven’t made any changes and they are always a no fail hit.
Made these for my husband who loves lemon bars and his comment when he tried them was “they taste like we got them at a French bakery”. High praise indeed!! They are delicious and were super easy to make. Thanks!! Another successful and tasty recipe courtesy of Inspired Taste
Amazing! I love this recipe. I’m definitely not an experienced baker and I was intimidated by making the crust and worried the lemon would be too sour. I had no reason to be worried. The crust is so easy to make and the lemon was the perfect balance of tangy and sweet. Easy to follow recipe and such a crowd pleaser!
Delicious. First time making. Bringing to a potluck tomorrow. Wanted to bring a dessert that wasn’t chocolate. Thank you for posting. Yum!
These are AMAZING?everyone loved them! They were all fighting over who got to take tje leftovers home?a lot of people always comment on how good the lemon filling is, which this is fantastic BUT the crust for this is PERFECT!! You could honestly eat it on its own! BEST lemon bar recipe ever!!!!!
By far the best lemon bars I have ever tasted; homemade or pastry shop made!!
First day , I did them and they were delicious . Let them in refrigerator and the second day they were even better… I eat them all. Very simple recipe . The crust is so good the filling is so smooth. It will be my recipe to use for lemon bars , from now on will be on my 10 best recipes list .
I just made these and they are so delicious. The crust is so good this way and the filling is just right and so smooth. It will be my recipe to use for lemon bars from now on. Thank you
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I made some a few days ago and they were delicious! Perfect combo of a tart and creamy lemon top and a sweet and crunchy crust. Do you think this could also be made with mangoes?
Hi Shanese, Thanks for the comment and your photos looked great! As for using mango, I’m really not sure since I have never tried this. I bet something could be worked out though!
Thank you! Hmmmm, I think I’ll give it a go. Thanks for replying 🙂
Just tried it with mango and it turned out great! For the filling I used 1 cup of mango puree (pureed and sieved from 2 mangoes), 1 1/4 cups of sugar, and 3 tbsp of lime juice. For the crust I used lime zest instead of lemon
That’s great to read, Shanese.
Wow! I have been searching for a creamy scrambled egg recipe and I’ve found the absolute best in your recipe! I’ve done a lot of trial and error through books and other resources and truly…yours is a winner! I look forward to making these for my family! I am confident they will love them! One question, if I wanted to add cheese, when is the best time to add it so the cheese doesn’t clump in the eggs? Thank you again and keep up the awesome work! Looking forward to trying your potato salad next!
Want to try your recipe for lemon bars, but a question
about using the aluminum foil to bake the bars in, was
reading something about using foil for cooking food on,
like grilling or other baking, was wondering if parchment
paper would work also? Thank you, Shirley
Parchment will work just fine.
Just made these tonight. Fantastic!
I made the recipe, and it was great… This is the first time I baked lemon bars from the scratch… the lemon filling and crust fits perfectly together. Everyone in the family loved it. Thank you for this yummy recipe.Giving 5 stars for this.
Just made these for my grandmother for her birthday and they were amazing!! I hunted for a while online to find a recipe that had more of a creamy rather than cakey filling and this was it. I was so focused on finding the right filling that I wasn’t concerned about the crust but wow, the crust was absolutely delicious, too. Great recipe, full 5 stars!!
I found your recipe on another site and have been making them for a very long time – the best Lemon Bar recipe there is – and believe there are a lot of them. I always have a list of people that I promise them these Lemon Bars to – they love them so and so do I. Thank you so much ……
I made your lemon blueberries bars and they are the best. I didn’t change a thing at all. They were made for the Fourth of July and everyone loved them. Again thank you for the great recipes.
Just found your web sight and let me tell you your recipes look great. Trying the lemon bars today. I will tell you how they turn out. Again thank you for the great recipes. I can give it five stars just lookin and reading your recipes.
I’m making these now, I didn’t have enough lemon juice so I added a little lime with it. Tasted it before I put the eggs in and it was great. Perfect combo of tart and sweet. Thanx guys!!!