These Lemon Bars are perfectly balanced with a buttery crust and tangy lemon filling, these homemade lemon bars are the ultimate summer treat!
Brighten Your Day with Delicious Lemon Bars! 🍋✨
There’s something so irresistible about the sweet-tart and bright flavor of lemon bars. They are the perfect treat to brighten any day. Lemon bars are great for any occasion, but these bars are so special on their own you need no occasion to make them! Lemon bars truly taste like you’re having a bite of sunshine. Packed with vitamin C, you can almost trick yourself into thinking these are good for you wink wink 😉 Today, I’m excited to share my favorite recipe for making irresistibly zesty lemon bars that will have everyone asking for seconds! I first got this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction and have since added to it.
With Father’s day coming up, lemon bars make for a perfect treat for dads. My dad goes crazy for fruit desserts and these lemon bars are at the top of his list. They are is goto father’s day treat! I hope you love this recipe as much as my family does!
Why We Love Lemon Bars
🎉 Let’s Get Baking!
Ingredients:
Butter: I always use organic unsalted butter for baking and cooking. It provides the perfect base to add any flavors to it for sweet or savory applications.
Vanilla: I used pure Mexican vanilla extract for these lemon bars, but use whatever vanilla you have on hand. A tip when shopping for vanilla is to look for the word “Pure” on the label, as it is as clean as possible. You can also make your own homemade vanilla extract with organic vanilla beans!
Salt: Any salt will do, I use pink Himalayan sea salt for a little boost of nutrients
Sugar: I use organic raw sugar cane for my baking. Sugar in the raw still has its nutrients intact and it hasn’t been bleached. It has a beautiful sandy color to it, and adds a slight caramel-y & molasses-y note to your baked goods.
Lemons: Organic lemon zest and juice is what makes these lemon bars shine. Make sure to wash your lemons very well before zesting. (When zesting avoid the white pith of the fruit…it is very bitter)
Eggs: I eat and cook with free range eggs. Opting for free range eggs means that your chickens haven’t been cooped up and fed strictly grain. They are allowed to graze and eat grass and bugs and whatever else they find tasty which makes for a healthier egg
All Purpose Flour: Cooking with organic unbleached and unbromated flour is extremely important.
Nutrition Note: Most non-organic flours contain potassium bromate which is a chemical added to flour that according to Google AI “acts as an oxidizing agent, enhancing the rising process of dough and improving the overall texture of baked goods. While bromate is used to improve baking results, it has also been linked to health concerns, as it has been shown to cause kidney, thyroid, and gastrointestinal cancer in animals”
Try to always use organic ingredients when possible. Avoiding the chemicals, added hormones, and pesticides that get put into our food supply is oh so important.
Lemon Bars
Equipment
- 1 9 X 13 glass pan
- mixing bowls
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter melted
- 2 ½ cups sugar divided ½ cup for crust 2 cups for filling
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 ½ cups AP flour divided 2 cups + 2 tbsp for crust 6 tbsp for filling
- 1 cup lemon juice about 4 to 5 lemons
- 6 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F and prepare the 9 X 13 pan with parchment paper. (Make sure to leave an overhang of parchment to make it easier to get the bars out of the pan)
- Before beginning the crust, get your sugar and lemon zest and mix the zest into the sugar with your hands. You will perfume the sugar with the beautiful lemon flavor
- Crust: To make the crust melt the butter, and when melted, mix with lemon sugar, salt, and vanilla. When all combined, add flour until a dough is formed.
- Press the dough into the prepared 9 X 13 pan and bake for 20 – 22 minutes or until lightly browned.
- While crust is in the oven make the filling
- Filling: To make the filling whisk lemon juice with 6 eggs, set aside
- In a different bowl, whisk together the lemon sugar and the flour (about 1 minute to break up any flour clumps)
- Add the juice and eggs into the flour and sugar and whisk until combined.
- When crust is removed from the oven, quickly poke holes in the crust (not all the way down) using a fork to allow the filling to soak into the crust.
- Pour the filling over the crust and bake for 22 – 28 minutes until the center is mostly set and is no longer jiggly.
- Cool for 2 hours at room temperature and then transfer to the fridge for another 1 – 2 hours.
- Once cooled, run your knife along the edges to separate the bars from the pan, then lift the parchment paper out of the pan and cut into into squares, and top with powdered sugar.
- They will last in the fridge for up to a week, or frozen for 3 – 4 months….If they last that long!
Notes
For a little extra touch of fancy you can add some homemade Mascarpone whipped cream. It adds delicious sweetness and creaminess that with the lemons bars is such a lovely pairing!
There you have it! Now go and grab your lemons, get to baking, and let the sunshine into your kitchen! These lemon bars are guaranteed to make you smile and brighten your day and everyone else’s too. Happy baking, friends! 🍋💛
May God bless you and those you love!
<3 K&J
