This meal is delicious served as a side dish or all by itself with cornbread and salad.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 1 8×8-inch pan |
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolks
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar, or to taste
Instructions
- Set an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8×8-inch baking dish.
- Make crust: Use the back of a spatula or wooden spoon to mash flour and butter in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Mix in confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt until mixture resembles slightly crumbly cookie dough. Moisten your fingers with a little water and press dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Use a fork to prick holes all over crust.
- Bake on the middle rack in the preheated oven until edges are barely golden brown, about 22 minutes. Set aside.
- Make custard: Beat together eggs and egg yolks in a medium bowl until combined. Whisk in white sugar and flour until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest; whisk for 2 minutes. Pour over warm crust.
- Bake on the center rack until custard is set and the top has a thin white sugary crust, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into bars.
- Dip a knife into very hot water, then run the blade around the edges and cut into 16 squares. Dust bars with confectioners’ sugar.
- To add a meringue topping: Whisk 1 egg white in a bowl until it forms a ribbon. Whisk in 1 tablespoon white sugar until mixture holds soft peaks. Spoon meringue into a resealable plastic bag; cut a corner off the bag and squeeze meringue on top of cut bars in a decorative pattern. Brown meringue lightly with a kitchen torch.
- This is one of our most popular lemon bar recipes of all time — learn more:
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Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 153 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 22 g |
| Cholesterol | 51 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 47 mg |
| Sugars | 15 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
It’s one of my wife’s and my coworkers’ favorite recipes that I make. The only change I make is replacing the lemon juice and zest with an equal amount of lime juice and zest to make lime bars.
I made these for my dad’s birthday and used the wrong sized pan by mistake, so they were thinner than they should have been, but he loved them. Shared them with my boyfriend and his family, apparently he and his dad don’t like lemon but really enjoyed these bars. Will definitely make again in the future (with the right sized pan this time).
I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out great. I will definitely make this again.
Lemon or lime always a hit without changing a thing.
Made in oval pan, but other than that followed the directions exactly. Turned out delicious.
I made these for a church luncheon last weekend. Just the right amount of tartness with sweetness. A keeper Chef John!
Truthfully, I cheated…the ‘sugary crust’ on top cracked a bit when I was cutting. I tried it, a lot! So some squares didn’t have the addicting crust on top. My bottom crust was a bit too crumbly to dock (poke holes), I think my butter wasn’t soft enough. I used a pastry thingy to blend it. It came out very good though. I love the yellow color too.
The taste is really good but as others mentioned the timing is off. My crust was done at 17-18 min. The custard incurred big brown bubbles on top at 15 mins. but it was still vey jiggly. I turned temp down to 300 and baked another 10 mins. After resting 10 minutes, use the hot knife to loosen the browned edge before the custard hardens.
I have shared this recipe with family, friends and coworkers. Everyone loves these lemon bars. They are perfectly tart and sweet and cook up perfectly, every time. This is the only lemon bar recipe I use.
I doubled this recipe and added the baking powder to the crust as suggested by others. This came out beautiful and it got rave reviews. I used shortening to grease the pan and put it on heavily. My crust was a bit thicker due to size of pan not being double the size of what recipe is scaled for so it took a bit longer to cook. It also took a bit longer on the custard but again, it was thicker. I used a 9×13 glass dish. After you dust top with powdered sugar you can put paper cut out designs on top and dust again with dyed powered sugar then remove the paper designs and it looks cool. Use a paper doily to do this with and it looks like lace work.
Best. Lemon. Bars. EVER! I doubled the recipe still using 9×13 pan and they came out wonderful. Followed recipe.
For me these are the holy grail, the O.G. of lemon bars, perfect squares of sweet-tart Love. I have 2 professional pastry chefs in my extended family, and they just about knocked me to the ground for the recipe. I’m a much better cook than baker, so my expectations were pretty reasonable, I just was in the mood for a sweet lemony treat. I have made quite a few of Chef John’s recipes in the years I have used this site, and he has honestly never disappointed me. I was mind blown to see how lovely these looked, my baked goods are tasty but looks wise nothing to write home about. The perfect sweet/tart ratio and creamy, silky texture is what stole my heart. Food is very subjective, and if Lemon desserts don’t appeal to you at all then give this a polite pass. If you think they sound delicious and want to try them out, please do it ASAP! I sat on this recipe for months before I made it, now I am overjoyed that I finally did
These turned out AMAZING. I took the other bakers advice and watched the cooking time carefully, but it wasn’t far off for my oven. I decided to candy lemon slices for garnish and it paired very well with the bars! None of these came home from the party. Tip: do the wet knife around the edges while the lemon bars are still warm. Not right out of the oven, but definitely before they’re cool. Wait till the next day to cut if you want them to be pretty. I cooked these at night and cut them the next morning.
I MADE IT BEFORE AND I HAVE MANY REQUESTS TO MAKE AGIN. GREAT EASY RECIPE
Like others, I didnt read the comments and 25 minutes was WAY to long for the second cooking/custard layer. I checked it at 20 minutes and it was already past time to take it out, top was very brown, I think if I’d gone the whole 25 minutes I’d have had to toss it out. So, definitely oven times vary , I’d start checking after 15 minutes or so. Also I did “lightly” oil the baking dish but that crust stuck like glue and I lost a lot of the cookie trying to get it out of the pan. So, I will make this again but will either line with parchment or will very heavily butter, maybe even grease and flour the baking dish so the bars will come out of the pan.
I love all chef John’s recipes
Easy to make and delicious flavor! I had Meyer and regular lemons so I used half the juice & zest from each. I think both the crust and the bars in general could go a few minutes less in my oven as my lemon layer browned a little on top and my crust got a little stuck and over-hardened in the corners. So keep an eye on yours the first time you make it and adjust the timing to your oven.
I love this recipe but want to double it. Besides using a bigger pan, do I double the ingredients? Does cooking time change? I didn’t have vanilla so used lemon extract and it was wonderful!!
The first time baker of the family made these and found the recipe easy to follow and the results were as expected; buttery crust, and creamy lemony custard with deliciously crispy edges. We used Meyer lemons, which yielded a less tart version and so we skipped the sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar on top. Thanks for the recipe!
Super easy and delicious!
Making them for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Want to gild the lily? Rather than topping with a dusting of powdered sugar, top them with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting. Yummmmm!