Homemade Lemon Bars

Do you ever look to make a dessert but find so many of them are made with chocolate? Same. I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate so I always seek out fruit desserts. That’s when I found Sally’s Homemade Lemon Bar recipe, and I knew I had to make it!

I love lemon everything! It’s absolutely my favorite flavor when it comes to sweets. It’s fresh and zingy with a bit of sweetness. These lemon bars have those exact flavors and are truly one of my favorite desserts.

These come together pretty easily if you think of them as building blocks – first, you make the crust. Then you make the filling. Put them together and they’re ready to eat with a dusting of sugar on top. So easy!

All the directions are down below, along with the original Sally’s Baking recipe for it! Thanks for a great recipe, Sally!

Let me know if you make it in the comments below!

Homemade Lemon Bars

Servings: 24 bars
Time: 3 hours, 50 minutes
Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients

Shortbread Crust

1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Lemon Filling

2 cups granulated sugar
6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
1 cup lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting to serve

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325°. Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides to lift the finished bars out. Set aside.
Make the crust: Mix the melted butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir to completely combine. The dough will be thick. Press firmly into prepared pan, making sure the layer of crust is nice and even. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven. Using a fork, poke holes all over the top of the warm crust (not all the way through the crust). Set aside.
Make the filling: Sift the sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, then the lemon juice until completely combined.
Pour filling over warm crust. Bake the bars for 22-26 minutes or until the center is relatively set and no longer jiggles. Remove bars from the oven and cool completely at room temperature. Then stick in the refrigerator for 1-2 more hours until pretty chilled.
Once cool, lift the parchment paper out of the pan using the overhang on the sides. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares before serving. Cover and store leftover lemon bars in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Enjoy!