One of Jeremy’s co-workers, Amy, just had her baby, Mr. Cannon Bailey Crocker. He is sweet and perfect and mom and dad are soooo happy he finally showed up. Jeremy’s office is pretty much a bunch of guys (with the exception of Amy) and it’s kind of like one big family…we all know each other, hang out together on occasion and when someone in the office has a baby, the wives make food! So we got a meal sign-up sheet together for Amy and her family and I immediately knew what dessert I was going to make her even before I figured out what main dish I’d be preparing. It’s all about priorities, right??
Amy had mentioned not too long ago that she loves lemon bars. Perfect! I already had a couple of recipes that I’d made before but I wanted to try a new one. So I found this one by Ina Garten and it is so, SO good. Definitely the best lemon bar recipe I have tried yet, by far. I love the ratio of crust to filling. Usually it’s half crust and half filling (which is not enough filling, in my opinion) but this recipe was about one-third crust and two-third filling. The lemon filling was the perfect balance of sweet and tart and the crust was flaky and buttery. This recipe is a keeper!
- 2 sticks Unsalted Butter, softened
- ½ c. Granulated Sugar
- 2 c. All-Purpose Flour
- ⅛ t. Salt
- ½ t. Pure Vanilla Extract
- 6 Large Eggs at room temperature
- 3 c. Granulated Sugar
- 2 T. Grated Lemon Zest (4 to 6 lemons)
- 1 c. Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice (8 lemons)
- 1 c. All-Purpose Flour
- Powdered Sugar, for dusting
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.
- For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer. Combine the flour and salt and with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed. Add vanilla. Gather the dough into a ball and press gently and evenly into the 9x13 pan. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Bake the crust for 18 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on, set to 350 degrees.
- For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
- Cut into triangles or squares and dust with powdered sugar.
Made these for Easter today, huge hit! I love lemon desserts, and these are amazing! Everyone loved, definitely will make these again. Thank you!
Alyssa, that is great! So glad everyone loved them! They’re one of my favorite recipes for sure. 🙂
I love lemon bars, but I’ve struggled to find a lemon bar recipe where the middle sets up right. These bars set up nicely, however they are REALLY tart!! We all tried a piece and loved the crust, but had to throw out the rest of the pan because it was just way too tart for my family…Darn it! I guess I’ll keep searching.
I made these last night and forgot to put the 1c flour in the filling. Baked it for about 10 minutes longer and it set nicely and tasted great! I got lots of compliments for this one.
Danielle, that is great! I’m so happy you liked them!
I’ve made these once before for a graduation party. They were great the first day, and even better the next. I’ll never use another recipe. This is a keeper.
I wonder can you freeze these? I’m thinking with the filling probably not?
Rachael, I’m honestly not sure but it does seem like the filling might not freeze well or at least thaw and still be firm and not gooey/runny.
I have just made these and found recipe straight forward, yet regards to ingredients telling you to use •1 c. Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice (8 lemons. I did this and recipe became far too runny and far too much to use on biscuit base. unfortunately I had to throw a lot of it away and yes I did follow rest of recipe correctly. it must be a mistake on recipe ingredients , had spent a bit of time baking this and it turned out tasting terrible
Carol, I’m sorry to hear that! We love these bars and I’ve never had issues with the recipe.
I recently made these and they are fantastic, will definitely make again
Hi sorry can u say me eggless receipe for filling… as im alergic to egg and i loved ur receipe…
This recipe looks great, but please, could you write it in grams? And one more question, we don’t have butter in sticks, so, please would you be so kind to tell me the weight of one stick so I could mesure it and use it to make this delli. 🙂
Just made these and mine were golden brown on the top. Just dusted and they are cooling. Any thought about why they were brown?
Phyllis, I’m honestly not sure.
I made these twice and baked accordingly. Each time the Le,on filling was too thick. I suspect my oven runs hot and I should probably reduce the time from 30 minutes to 20.
Pat, that may be the issue but I’m honestly not sure. I’ve never had an issue with them.
I am finding that the filling has not “set” after 30 minutes. I used metal pan. Glass better? Followed recipe.
I followed recipe directions bake until filling is set. The filling was set and over baked. I have made lemon bars and never had this difficulty.
I went back to Ina Garten’s recipe. It should be emphasized that after baking crustit should cool completely! Mine was it completely cold. This is important as it really effects the fillings consistency.
Kathy, thank you for the feedback. Her recipe says to cool to room temperature (which I take to also mean cool completely) which is what I did and how I wrote the recipe. I didn’t have any issues with the bars, however oftentimes ovens bake differently, etc. I hope you try them again!
These are absolutely wonderful, and it’s a really great recipe. I think the trick is really following the recipe precisely. Letting the crust cool does make a big difference. I really can’t complain, they’re great. We added chocolate to the top of ours, which is also great.
Jacob, thank you for the feedback! So glad you enjoyed them!
I made these exactly as written. The crust was like cake, not shortbread. The filling was so sour we couldn’t eat it and had to throw the dessert away. The top was not crunchy and sugary, it was soft and spongy. I might try them again with either less juice or more sugar in the filling, and use another recipe for the crust entirely. I like a shortbread crust better than cake. Not what I expected, I wanted sweet, chewy and crunchy and these were soft and sour.
Elsie, I’m sorry to hear that! I’ve had great success with this recipe.
Perfect lemon bars! Turn out perfect every time.