Lemon Bars
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Bring these lemon bars to your next get-together and watch them disappear—they’re bright, buttery, and the perfect balance of tart and sweet.
When the weather warms up—or I’m just in the mood for something sunny and bright—I always come back to this old-fashioned lemon bars recipe. With a buttery shortbread crust and a tangy citrus filling, they’re a little slice of summer and one of my favorite treats to keep in the fridge (or freezer).
They’re also incredibly easy to make—just eight simple ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your pantry. And here’s my secret to the best lemon bars: a touch of cornstarch in the crust. It’s a pastry-chef trick that gives the shortbread a tender, crisp texture all the way through.
These lemon bars keep and freeze beautifully, so they’re perfect for making ahead for picnics, potlucks, or anytime a lemon craving strikes.
“Simply the best lemon bars you’ll ever eat.”
What You’ll Need To Make Lemon Bars
- All-purpose flour & Cornstarch: The flour gives the crust structure and also helps thicken the lemon topping so it sets nicely. The cornstarch is the secret to that tender-crisp texture that makes the shortbread layer so good.
- Confectioners’ sugar: Sweetens the crust and helps give it that crisp, delicate texture. A light dusting over the top of the finished bars also makes them look as pretty as they taste.
- Butter: Adds richness and flakiness to the crust, giving it a shortbread-like texture and flavor. Keep it cold until ready to make the crust.
- Eggs: The base of the topping, giving it structure and richness.
- Granulated sugar: Sweetens the lemon layer and balances the tartness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon zest & Fresh Lemon Juice: The zest adds concentrated lemon flavor, while the juice brings brightness and tang. Use a microplane to zest the lemons—just the yellow part, not the bitter white pith—and always zest before you juice.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How to Make Classic Lemon Bars
To get started, gather all your ingredients, adjust the oven rack to the middle position, preheat the oven to 350°F, line a 9×13 metal baking pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Step 1: Combine crust ingredients. Place the flour, cornstarch, salt and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Mix for 15 seconds to blend together, then add the chunks of cold butter.
Step 2: Mix the crust. Pulse to breakdown the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. This should take 10 to 15 seconds.
Step 3: Form the crust. Place the mixture into your prepared pan. Press the mixture firmly with your fingers into an even layer, building up a thin edge around the sides. Refrigerate the crust for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes.
Step 4: Bake. Bake the crust until lightly golden—it will take 15 to 20 minutes.
Step 5: Make the filling. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and flour. Whisk the mixture well, making sure no lumps of flour remain.
Step 6: Add to crust. Pour the filling into the baked crust.
Step 7: Bake lemon bars. Return the pan to the oven and bake another 30 to 35 minutes, or until the topping is set and firm. Let the bars cool on a rack to room temperature.
Step 8: Remove from pan. Use the foil overhang to lift the baked lemon squares out of pan and onto a cutting board. Carefully loosen the foil from the edges of the crust.
Step 9: Cut and serve. Once completely cool, use a sharp knife and cut your homemade lemon bars into squares or triangles. Right before serving, dust the top with confectioners’ sugar. Keep the bars in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze for longer storage.
Video Tutorial
More Lemon Dessert Recipes You May Like
Luscious Lemon Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more to decorate finished bars
- 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-in (13-mm) pieces
For the Lemon Topping
- 6 large eggs
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (be sure to zest the lemons before juicing)
- ⅔ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 5 to 6 lemons
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
Instructions
Make the Crust
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Cover a 9 x 13-in (23 x 33-cm) metal baking pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil (see note below). Push the foil neatly into the corners and up the sides of the pan, using two pieces if necessary to ensure that the foil overlaps all edges (the overhang will help removal from the pan). Spray the foiled pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the flour, cornstarch, salt, and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment and mix for a few seconds. Add the butter and mix to blend until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 10 to 15 seconds. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press firmly with your fingers into an even layer, building up a thin ¾-inch (2-cm) edge around the sides (this keeps the filling from spilling beneath the crust). Refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes.
- Bake the crust until lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
Make the Filling
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and flour. Be sure no lumps of flour remain.
- When the crust is ready, give lemon mixture a quick final stir and then pour over top. Immediately return the pan to the oven and bake another 30 to 35 minutes, or until the topping is set and firm. Let the bars cool on a rack to room temperature; it will take several hours.
- To cut, use the foil overhang to lift the baked square out of pan and onto a cutting board. Carefully loosen the foil from the edges of the crust, using a knife if necessary. Using a sharp knife, cut into squares or triangles. Use a fine sieve to dust the squares with confectioners' sugar. Store the bars in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Serve chilled or room temperature.
Notes
- Be sure to use heavy-duty aluminum foil; regular aluminum foil may stick. Parchment paper can also be used to line the pan.
- Freezing Instructions: The bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. After they are completely cooled, freeze the batch whole, covered tightly with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap. Before serving, remove them from the freezer and let them thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Cut the bars and then sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I bake for the homeless and for a local monthly beach cleanup that attracts 250-330 volunteers. So I bake almost daily. One of my favorite things is to find the best example of a recipe, often going through many trials, or several years. Some recipes end up in the recycle bin after one taste, and some have notes for future trials. When I saw you 2019 Luscious Lemon Bar recipe, I had to compare it to what had been my favorite. I made both, and you guessed it. What had been my favorite lemon bar recipe is now in the recycle bin, and I will search no longer for the best lemon bar recipe, knowing that I have found it. Thank you so much. Looking forward to my next trial.
Another excellent recipe. Thank you so much I have never had a failure with any of your recipes. This recipe makes enough to share and have some to put in the freezer.
The lemon bars had just the right amount of tartness and everyone who ate them loved the crust.
I have shared your website with many of my friends as they are always asking me for the recipes.
😊
Hi Jen – I made these over the weekend and they tasted amazing! My only issue was that when I went to take them out of the pan (with the aluminum foil), they broke in half so cutting them evenly became a challenge. The bars were definitely cooked well (the top was a bit darker than your pic, actually) and were not still warm as I had chilled them in the fridge for several hours. Any tips to prevent this next time?
Hmmm… I’ve never had that problem. Did you use heavy-duty foil? (I don’t think regular foil would be sturdy enough for this.) If you did and still had that problem, I’d suggest that after they’ve cooled in the fridge, that you stick the bars in the freezer for 10 or 15 minutes before pulling the foil out of the pan. Hope that helps!
382 reviews and 5 stars — thought I couldn’t go wrong, but this didn’t work for me at all. I also chose this recipe because it made twice as many as most other recipes, but then I had to throw out two-thirds of the pan. First: flour and butter made… flour. Nothing close to a coarse meal. I added a tiny bit of melted butter to get it to stick a little and look like your picture. Next: shortbread mixture barely covered the pan, certainly not enough to go up the sides. Finally: after full time cooking and a little more, plus plenty of cooling time, I got a few usable tiny squares and a lot of sticky glop. I am an experienced baker and have made lots of lemon squares, but this one was a fail.
I followed your recipe to a T, while I’ve never made anything from scratch in my whole life, these came out perfect! My family was quite impressed! These are my go to when I want to spoil my family! Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ll save it forever!
My experience exactly! I still will try more of her recipes cuz ill assume that european ingredients are diff than us
These were made this weekend, using Meyer lemons. Amounts of juice, sugar, and zest as per recipe.
Someone must have taken a vacuum cleaner to the plate, because they were gone in about an hour.
My wife, who did SOME of the work (hey, I stopped whacking the weeds around the lemon tree and picked one of the lemons!) was a bit concerned whether the crust would hold together after baking, because it didn’t feel very solid when pressing it into the baking dish before the crust pre-bake. And, after the baking everything, the filling seemed to be a bit soft.
We left everything in the refrigerator overnight, and it was perfect. Blame the apprehension on a lack of experience with lemon bars.
These are amazing! I don’t bake often, and the recipe was so easy. I forgot to refrigerate the crust, but that didn’t seem to affect the final product. Mixing the flour into the granulated sugar before adding to the eggs eliminated the flour clumps in the filling.
These are amazing every time i make them! I used GF flour in mine. Definitely luscious!
Good day I love your recipes! I want to make the lemon bars but I don’t own a food processor can you tell me what to do please
Karen
Hi Karen, You can cut the butter into the flour mixture with two knives or rub it in with your fingers – it will just take a while! You could also try using softened butter and an electric mixer. Hope that helps!
Thanks Jen it suddenly did and the recipe turned out FANTASTIC! Thanks so much 🌷
I’m surprised you have not addressed the gluten-free question yet. I am looking forward to making this but need to know about substituting GF flour. Thank you.
Jane
I think it’d work well here, Jane. I’d use King Arthur measure for measure.
I used GF flour with this recipe, i used Bob’s Redmill 1:1 in the blue and clear bag.
Hi Jenn, I looked at all of the comments, but I am not clear if the suggestions for using Meyer lemons were for “old” recipe.
What are you suggestions for Meyer lemons? Less sugar? More lemon juice? Please help; I have a Meyer lemon tree that is bursting with lemons….
Thank you so much.
Hi Isabel, Since Meyer lemons are sweeter, I’d reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup. I’d love to know how they turn out!