Deliciously sweet Lemon Bars with a shortbread crust and a rich lemon filling. Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa’s famous recipe.
A few weekends ago, we offered to bring a dessert to a church event, and these delicious Lemon Bars were a big hit. Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa Parties!
A good Lemon Bars recipe is something that I believe everyone should have in their go-to recipe collection, and this particular recipe should be a strong contender for your own recipe box.
How do you make Lemon Bars?
You may be surprised at how easy these Lemon Bars are to bake! You’ll start by making a lightly-sweetened, buttery shortbread crust that is baked until firm.
Then, you’ll pour a rich and lemony-sweet filling over the crust, and bake again until the filling is set. Once the bars have cooled, the top is sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar for one additional bit of sweetness – plus the powdered sugar looks very pretty on top!
Cut into squares or triangles, then add a little more confectioner’s sugar before serving.
If you are a lemon dessert lover like we are – these rich and intensely lemon bars are a must-try dessert, and they certainly won’t disappoint!
You may enjoy these other Lemon recipes:
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Lemon Curd
- Lemon Sugar Cookies
- Lemon Mousse Cups
- Lemon Ginger Poppy Seed Biscotti
This recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in March 2013. We’ve updated the recipe and photos.
PrintLemon Bars
Deliciously sweet Lemon Bars with a shortbread crust and a rich lemon filling. Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa’s famous recipe.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 55 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 24 generous-sized triangles, or 48 smaller triangles 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the Crust
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
For the Filling
6 extra large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
Instructions
To make the crust
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture until just mixed. The mixture will resemble large, soft crumbs.
- Pour the crumbs of dough into a 13x9x2-inch baking pan (glass works best for us) and press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pan, making the dough as smooth as possible and building up a ½ inch edge on all sides.
- Chill the dough.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Once the oven has preheated, bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes or until the crust is very lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool. Keep the oven on.
To make the filling
- While the crust is baking, make the filling as follows:
- Mix together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Mix until well combined.
- Pour the filling mixture over the baked crust and then bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the filling is set.
- Let cool completely. (We found it easiest to cut these bars if they were refrigerated for a few hours before cutting.)
- Cut into 12 squares – then cut each square into triangles (either 24 or 48 smaller triangles).
- Dust with confectioner’s sugar before serving.
Hi, do you grease and use parchment paper in the baking dish before adding the crust mixture?
Hi Lorraine – You don’t have to – the butter in the crust is enough to prevent it from sticking. If you’d like to use parchment paper to make it easy to lift out of the pan for cutting, you can definitely do that (but extra greasing won’t be necessary.) Hope that helps!
Did I do something wrong? At the end of the 15 minute baking at350, the batter was really still goopy. I baked another 10 minutes and they’re okay but a really strange texture.
Hi Nancy – The crust is baked for 15 minutes, then once you’ve poured in the filling, you bake it another 25 to 30 minutes.