The best lemon bars are a classic spring recipe made with a buttery crust and gooey lemon filling. Top this lemon bar recipe with powdered sugar and you’ll have an easy and delicious spring dessert!
When April and May hit is just means lemon desserts like iced lemon cake, lemon meringue pie, lemon cheesecake cookies and these lemon bars! There’s nothing better than a sweet and tart lemon recipe to finish of a party or dinner as we head into the summer months.
Lemon bars are one of those classic recipes that you probably think of when you think lemon treats. For good reason! They’re delicious.
The trick to a good lemon bar? Lots of fresh lemon juice and lemon zest.
You’ll also want a soft and buttery crust for your lemon bar recipe. All that gooey filling has to top something!
Ingredients for the Best Lemon Bars
You will need a few basic baking ingredients to make these bars along with a few fresh lemons. Here is what you will need to make this delicious recipe:
Crust:
- Sugar: just regular granulated white sugar
- Unsalted Butter: needs to be softened to room temperature
- Flour: all purpose flour is all you need
- Salt: cuts through the sweetness and tartness and enhances all the flavors
- Lemon Juice: the juice of about 1 lemon
Filling:
- Eggs: creates the richness and creaminess of the filling
- Sugar: adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemons
- Flour: helps thicken the filling and gives it structure
- Salt: enhances all the flavors
- Lemon Juice: fresh lemon juice is preferred and you’ll need 3-4 large lemons
- Lemon Zest: you’ll need the zest from about 1 lemon
- Powdered Sugar: used for garnish to balance out the tartness and to make the bars look extra pretty
The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. BONUS: If you want a gluten free lemon bar, check out our gf lemon bar recipe.
How to Make Lemon Bars
There are two parts to this recipe – the crust and the filling. Both parts are super simple! Here are the steps:
Crust:
Start by creaming 2 sticks of softened butter and sugar in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. This will be the base of your really tender crust. Then you’ll add the flour and sugar to bring it all together to form a dough.
The dough will likely be a little crumbly at this point so add in a bit of lemon juice unti