Lemon Bars
Description
With their buttery, flaky crust and perfectly puckering, creamy custard, these lemon 🍋 bars are a little explosion of flavor in every bite 💥💥💥.
I’ve been making these for years and my biggest issue was always cutting them. I never got clean, beautiful edges. Now that I’m putting a recipe into the world, it has to be right. After a few tests I realized that my first issue was that as soon as something comes out of my oven, I IMMEDIATELY want to taste it 👅. If you’re like me, STOP YOURSELF 🛑!! These are meant to be served chilled and they have an odd texture and taste when they’re just out of the oven (not that that has ever stopped me 🙄). The filling needs to set, and in order for this to happen, they need to rest and chill 😎. I promise you, it’s worth the wait!! Once they’ve had this time, they will not only taste amazing, they’ll also look beautiful (For best results, follow the tip below about rinsing your knife in between cuts).
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ cups (280 grams) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
Filling:
- 2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (50 grams) flour
- 3 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 6 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon confectioners sugar for dusting (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
Place a piece of parchment to cover the bottom and all 4 sides of a 9×13 inch (33×23 cm) pan.
Whisk the sugar, flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Melt the butter and add it to the bowl. Mix with a rubber spatula until just combined*. Place the dough into your parchment-lined pan and press into the bottom of the pan in as even a layer as possible. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the crust slightly golden brown in some places.
While the crust is baking, place the sugar in a medium bowl. Sift the flour into the bowl, and whisk the flour and sugar together. Crack the first egg into a separate small bowl. Whisk it to break up the yolk and then pour into the bowl with the sugar and flour. Crack the eggs one at a time into a separate small bowl, whisk to break up the yolk and then pour into the bowl with the sugar and flour. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest to the bowl and stir with a spatula until all ingredients are well combined. (I find that if you stir with a whisk, you add lots of air to the mixture and end up with lots of bubbles.)
After you remove the crust from the oven, lower the heat to 325F/165C.
Give the filling one more stir before pouring it on top of the crust. Place back on the oven for another 20-25 minutes until the filling is just set but still has a little bit of wiggle to it (see video). Give your pan a gentle shake to check.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack for an hour. Transfer to the refrigerator for another at least 1-2 hours or overnight until it’s completely cooled. As I mentioned above, this cooling time is super important, so do not skip it! Carefully pull the edges of the parchment paper to remove from the pan and place on a cutting board. Gently pull the parchment paper away from the sides. With a sharp knife, cut into squares**. Dust with confectioners sugar (if using).
*I used to make these by creaming the butter and sugar and then adding in the flour and salt. As I was testing this recipe, I looked around and found some others from @preppykitchen and @sallysbakeblog where the butter is melted and added. I found the difference between the 2 methods so subtle, it’s not worth dirtying your mixer for it, hence the method I use above.
**If you want the lemon bars to have clean edges, rinse your knife in warm water and dry with a kitchen towel between each cut.
For a smaller batch, use a 9×9 inch pan. I liked the lemon custard to crust ratio best with ½ batch of crust and ⅔ batch of filling.
Crust:
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoon (133 grams) all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Filling:
- 1 ⅓ cups (266 grams) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (32 grams) flour
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- ⅔ cup cup lemon juice
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon confectioners sugar for dusting (optional)
Method is the same as above except with slightly shorter baking times.