Description
These delightfully delicious lemon bars make the perfect treat to take on a picnic, present to your bookclub, or serve at your next backyard barbecue. They have just the right amount of sweet/tart flavor and the lemony flavor is complemented with an almond shortbread crust. Happen to have some dried culinary lavender lying around? Add a tablespoon and a half to the crust before baking for a light floral-flavor component.
Ingredients
Crust
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- (optional) 1 and 1/2 tablespoons dried crushed lavender
Custard
- 5 large eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 5 or 6 lemons)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 3 pieces
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Topping
- 1/3 cup confectioners sugar
- (optional) lemon peel garnish
Instructions
- Move an oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×9 baking pan with foil, folding an overhang over the edges.
- Cream butter and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Add all-purpose flour, almond flour, lemon zest (and lavender if using) and beat until crumbly. Press into even layer in prepared pan. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until edges are just turning golden brown. Remove and place on a cooling rack, and leave your oven on.
- While crust is cooling, whisk eggs, yolks, sugar, salt lemon juice and zest in a saucepan. Place saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constanty, until thickened to a pudding texture.
- Press lemon custard through a fine mesh strainer into a mixing bowl and stir in the butter and cream. Pour custard over crust and bake for about 30 minutes, or until set in the middle (not jiggly). Cool completely, about an hour. Using the foil overhangs, lift the bars out of the pan. Dust with powdered sugar just before slicing and serving.
Notes
This recipe is for a 9X9 inch metal baking pan; if using an 8X8 inch pan you will need to increase baking times for both crust and lemon custard, or slightly reduce the recipe ingredient amounts.
To get the look in the photos:
Cut strips of parchment paper and gently lay them over lemon bars before dusing with sugar. I used an OXO Citrus Prep Peeler to get the long continuous strip of lemon zest in the center.
- Prep Time: 20 hours
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 lemon bar
- Calories: 289
- Sugar: 24.8 g
- Sodium: 124 mg
- Fat: 15.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 8.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 34.4 g
- Protein: 4.5 g
- Cholesterol: 143 mg
