Lemon Bars

The most delicious Lemon Bars made with just 5 simple ingredients. A delicious shortbread base, a soft lemon filling and topped with icing sugar.

When the weather starts to get a bit nice I always crave everything lemon flavoured – Lemon mousse, lemon cakes and of course these delicious Lemon Bars.

They are perfect for a Spring and Summer time dessert, just five ingredients and most importantly really easy to make.

How To Make Lemon Bars

The ingredients you need to make these are:

• Softened butter
• Plain flour
• Caster Sugar
• Lemon Juice
• Eggs

And some icing sugar if you want to decorate the top.

1. Add softened butter, flour and caster sugar to a bowl. Mix firstly with a spoon then use your hands to rub the ingredients together.

2. Press the mixture into a lined oven dish and push down the top with the back of a spoon to make it as compact as possible. Then bake for 20 minutes.

3. Make up the lemon filling by mixing caster sugar, flour, lemon juice and eggs together.

4. Pour this oven the top of the shortbread base and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Once fully cooked, remove the tin from the oven and leave it to cool down. Then pop it into the fridge for 1 hour to chill. This step is really important as the lemon filling will still be very soft. If you cut it now it will fall apart. So please don’t skip the refrigeration step!

After chilling, you can decorate the top with some icing sugar and then cut into 9 bars. I also cut around the outside edges of the bars, just to tidy them up a bit and remove any slightly burnt edges.

Tips for this Recipe

I recently made this recipe gluten and dairy free for a friend. I used gluten free flour and a dairy free butter substitute. I did add a little extra butter to the shortbread base – about 15g. Just because gluten free flour can be more “thirsty” and require a little extra moisture.

The type of eggs you use in this recipe will affect the colour of the lemon filling. Standard eggs are absolutely fine and won’t affect the taste but the filling will be more of a duller yellow colour.

To get a really bright, almost orange toned, yellow colour then use Burford Brown eggs.

These Lemon Bars are perfect for a tasty weekend treat for the family. They’re also brilliant if you have guests coming as you can make them in advance and keep in the fridge until you are ready to add the icing sugar and serve.

If you try them please do come back and let me know in the comments below what you thought!

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Lemon Bars

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★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Ciara Attwell
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 9 1x
• Category: Cakes

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Description

The most delicious Lemon Bars made with just 5 simple ingredients. A delicious shortbread base, a soft lemon filling and topped with icing sugar.

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Ingredients

Shortbread Base:

• 130g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g plain flour
• 65g caster sugar

Lemon Filling:

• 200g caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 125 ml lemon juice (juice of approx 5 lemons)
• 3 medium eggs

To decorate:

• Icing sugar

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and line an 8×8 inch baking dish with parchment paper.
2. Make the shortbread base by adding the softened butter, flour and caster sugar to a large bowl.
3. Mix firstly with a spoon until the ingredients are well combined then use your hands to rub the ingredients together further.
4. Add this to the lined baking dish, pressing it evenly across the base of the dish.
5. Smooth down with the back of a spoon and then bake for 20 minutes.
6. In the meantime make the lemon filling by adding the caster sugar, flour, lemon juice and eggs to a bowl. Whisk together with a hand whisk.
7. When the shortbread base has finished cooking, remove the dish from the oven and pour the lemon filling on top.
8. Bake for another 20 minutes.
9. Remove the dish from the oven and allow it to cool a little. Then transfer to the fridge and leave it to fully chill for 1 hour.
10. Decorate the top with icing sugar and cut into 9 bars.

Notes

These Lemon Bars will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.

They can also be frozen but are best frozen without the icing sugar on top.