The Best Lemon Squares (w/Gluten Free Option)
This is the BEST recipe for Lemon Squares I have EVER tried! The shortbread crust is thick and tender, and the lemon custard on top is super tart and creamy. You will never go back!!
Originally posted January 20, 2012
The other day I casually mentioned to my friend Tawna that I made gluten free lemon squares. “Oh really?” she said, “I’ve never had a lemon square.”
And then my brain EXPLODED.
Okay not really, but GAH!!! The thought of life without lemon squares. If I could only eat one dessert for the rest of my life, it would be this recipe for lemon squares, no lie. (Okay. I’m lying. If in some sick world I really did have to choose, I would flip a coin between these lemon bars and The Best Chocolate Cake I’ve Ever Had.)
Tawna can’t eat gluten. I saw her again last weekend at a church breakfast event where I was loading up on doughnuts. She (again, so casually) mentioned that she’d never had a doughnut. I’M ON A MISSION, GUYS.
Although really I should just go to Sarah from Snixy Kitchen. Gluten-free baking definitely takes some practice and this girl has got it DOWN. Got any doughnut recipes up your sleeve, Sarah?? Spill!
Here’s what happens when your stack falls.
Sarah and I met at a blogging conference a couple years ago and since then she has literally saved my blog from the jaws of technical difficulties on a number of occasions. She also happens to be one of the most gifted photographers I know and even does food styling for the NY Times. She is crazy talented!!
I was at her house the other day and she showed me all the clothes that her mom has sewn for her baby. We are talking like an entire dresser-full, people, along with several blankets and knits. (Sherry, you are a master seamstress!) This kid is totally going to be better dressed than me, that is for sure.
The Best Lemon Square Recipe
This lemon bar recipe is an oooold favorite of mine. I perfected the recipe back in 2012 and published it here on the blog, but I love the recipe so much that I wanted to update the photos and tell all you lovely new people about it (since basically it was Eric and my mom reading back then.) I haven’t changed the recipe at all, and it’s too good to remain hidden in my archives.
How to get thick shortbread for your Lemon Squares
You MUST make these in a 2-quart, 8×11 inch pan if you want the crust-to-custard ratio you see in the photos. It will definitely work in a 9×13 but the layers will be thinner, which in my opinion, ruins the lemon bars. I want a THICK layer of shortbread and a THICK layer of custard. If you do make these in a 9×13, make sure you lower the baking times.
Here’s one of my photos from when I originally posted this . I was soooooo proud of it. *pinches cheek of former self*
Can I make these Lemon Squares Gluten Free? Yes you can!
I always make these lemon bars with regular all-purpose flour but since I made these for Sarah and she does not eat gluten (and this is her baby shower after all), I tried these with a gluten-free flour blend. It worked beautifully! I didn’t change the recipe at all besides swapping flours. Score! I love having an easy and delicious recipe on hand for gluten-free friends. Here’s the kind I used:
Oh and on the right is how brown your crust should be.
If you try out this recipe (DO IT!), snap a photo and share on social using #TheFoodCharlatan. I’d love to see what you are making!
Other Lemon Recipes You’ll Love:
Lemon Curd Sugar Cookie Sandwich
Meyer Lemon Tart << Have you tried Meyer lemons yet? They are a little sweeter and more orange-y than a regular lemon and have such amazing flavor. Try this one out!
Lemon Crinkle Cookies with Lemon Frosting. These are SO LEMONY! I love them:
The Best Lemon Curd: << no lie, guys.
Lemon Cake with Lemon Frosting. It’s one of my favorite cakes!
Lemon Bar Muddy Buddies from Lemon Tree Dwelling
Lemon Crumble Bars from House of Yumm << These look SO GOOD!!!
Lemon Ice Box Pie from Life, Love, and Sugar
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Lemon Squares
Makes 1 8x11 inch pan (serves 10-20) adjust servingsThis is the BEST recipe for Lemon Squares I have EVER tried! The shortbread crust is thick and tender, and the lemon custard on top is super tart and creamy. You will never go back!!
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour OR a gluten-free blend (I used Bob's Red Mill), spooned and leveled
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (or a few shakes more, to taste)
- zest of one lemon
For the custard
- 1 and 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour OR a gluten-free blend (I used Bob's Red Mill), spooned and leveled
- 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 medium lemons)
- 4 large eggs
- zest of 2-3 lemons (more zest=more tart. I add tons.)
- powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- For the crust:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare an 8x11 inch pan by lining it with parchment paper or spraying with nonstick spray. Or you could use foil, make sure you spray it with nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl (or stand-mixer), beat together softened butter with 1/2 cup sugar, salt and zest.
- Add 2 cups flour, either all-purpose or a gluten-free blend. Make sure you use a scoop or spoon to place the flour in your measuring cup, then level it off. You don't want to pack your flour.
- Beat in the flour. It won't come together in a ball probably, but you want to get big clumps that are sticking together. Make sure the butter and flour are incorporated.
- Press into the bottom of the prepared 8x11 inch pan. Wet your fingers a little if the dough sticks to your hands.
- Bake at 350 for 24-26 minutes, or until golden around the edges.
For the Custard:
- In a bowl (or using stand mixer), whisk together the remaining 1 and 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons flour. You can use the unwashed bowl you just used for the crust, but only if you scrape it out pretty well. You don't want clumps in your custard.
- After whisking the flour and sugar, whisk in the lemon juice, eggs, and zest.
- When the crust is done, pour the custard over the top. You don't have to wait for the crust to cool.
- Bake for an additional 26-28 minutes in the preheated oven. The edges should be set with the center still a little wiggly (just a little). The bars will firm up as they cool.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours until they are cold, then dust with powdered sugar right before serving. Don't bother doing it before because it will just seep into the custard and you won't see it.
- Store covered in the fridge.
by The Food Charlatan
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a very good lemon bar,so thick and lemony thank you!
Hooray! So glad you enjoyed it Summer! Thick bars are the only way to go. Thanks for reviewing!
I made these delicious cookies. My neighbors said it was just enough mint. They are so incredibly good it isn’t funny. The hardest part was not to over bake them or take them off the sheet to soon. Please be patient…Kate
Hi Kate! I think you meant to leave this comment on my Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies? So glad you enjoyed them!
Fantastic! I grabbed a couple disposable 8×11 from the grocery store and made two batches. One for me, one for the turkey day crew (outdoors)!
Yay! So glad you liked them! Lemon bars are the besssst
These are delicious! Best lemon bar I’ve ever tasted! For years I misjudged lemon desserts. I only had lemon when I needed it for fish or chicken. I tried my first lemon bar at an office potluck ten years ago and turned over a new leaf. I’ve been looking for a delicious lemon bar recipe that doesn’t end up dry or bland. These bars are a game-changer. I’ll never misjudged lemon desserts again.
I’m a newcomer to your blog. I’ve tried three of your recipes (Lemon bars, coffee cake with lots of streusel and chicken stroganoff). My kids are older than yours (11 and 16). I’m always looking for ways to perfect my cooking to fit my family’s taste buds. It’s overwhelming sometimes. I’ve only recently started looking at various blogs to help me find the missing links. I really enjoy your blog. Your recipes are straightforward and detailed. You have an adorable family. Anyway, your lemon bars are calling to me. Keep cooking and I’ll see you on your blog!
Yeah, hate to report that I was really looking forward to these lemon bars being my go-to recipe. I had this page bookmarked for the longest. I visited this site on many occasions just to re-read the details of the recipe over & over again & gander at the colorful photos attached.
When I knew I was ready to tackle this dessert, which is one of my favs, beside Key Lime Pie, and any variety of cheesecake….I clicked on the link, purchased the 8×11 pan from Amazon that was recommended. Not that was an ordeal in itself which I won’t get all into. I made the gluten free version & just wasn’t thrilled with the final product.
Now to be fair, I didn’t use the Bob’s Red Mill brand 1:1 GF flour. I used Pamela’s brand, but am considering trying this once more and using the BRM. Now 2 sticks of butter I thought was a bit much, but I went along with it. Chose a fine European style butter. And 2 cups of GF flour was hardly enough. When the crust baked, I could tell right away that it had needed way more flour by how many holes it had on the shortbread. That was a rookie cook mistake & I should have used better judgement, or just started the crust all over again.
Now on to the filling/custard. I’ll also admit that something funky was going on with my lemons. I had a few Meyers that was going bad, and they just didn’t seem as tart as I would have liked them to be. Moving on to the a amount of flour the custard called for, in my opinion, is way too much. I prefer a little jiggle in the finished product of my custard, and with all the flour I put in, it just wasn’t happening with these. Too solid. And they weren’t in the oven for 25 minutes the 2nd time around.
Again, I may give these another shot with using Bob’s GFF, but probably not for a while yet.
Hi Tara! I’m sorry they didn’t work out for you!
I live at 3,000 ft.. seems my crust is taking longer to brown!
Yeah altitude and differences in oven temp might be the culprit here! Did it brown eventually?
I tried this recipe and it turned out great, this was my first time ever baking from scratch and it worth it.
Hooray! I’m so glad it was a success Ester! Lemon bars are my favorite. Thanks so much for coming back to comment!
These look amazing! I need a few of these babies asap!
Thanks Sommer! Lemon bars are just the best! :)
Come on Morgan, they re LEMON bars, and a lemon is a fruit, so you can totally consider them part of the fruit category and have them every day ??
Yum! I love a good lemon bar and these look perfect! Thanks so much for coming to the shower, Karen. Hope to see you soon! xoxo
I have zero willpower over lemon bars and your pics make me want to run to the kitchen asap!!
Looking forward to those doughnuts my dear! Headline “Karen saves the day with her GF doughnuts!” Hooray! Girl, these look divine. I realized its been too long since I had a lemon bar. They are one of the best sweet things ever! Love that you and Sarah have met…. Now… your old lemon bars don’t look bad, but your new ones shine like the sun! Gorgeous my dear!
Okay, I love lemon bars and we have to get back to this in a second, but can we pause and talk about the fact that I have totally shot food on shirts (and skirts, and scarves…) too?? Sometimes it’s just the best fabric for tje job! HA.
But back to the food, these look so delicious, and I love that it’s an easy gluten-free swap! I basically know nothing about gluten-free cooking so this kind of easy recipe is exactly what I need.
And MY head exploded! What?!?! What’s life without lemon bars?!?! Karen, I seriously love.love your writing style! You always manage to make me laugh ;). I’m seriously so jealous that you and Sarah are neighbors! Will you be at BlogHer in Austin this October? If so, can I be your sidekick? ;)
I am such a sucker for lemon bars! I just love them! That’s so nice of you to be coming up with gluten free versions for your friend! And congrats to Sarah!!
haha I will confess that I had never had a lemon bar until a few years ago! Crazy right??? These look completely fantastic!
These look absolutely delicious! that color!
I made these yesterday. They really are the best!!! I find many other recipes to be thin, runny, and sad. These bars were firm and thick, something you could really sink your teeth into.
Yes yes yes! I’m so happy you made them Laura! I too have had many a sad runny lemon bar. No more!
aww, congrats to Sarah! These lemon bars are gorgeous!!
KAREN! I am obsessed with finding the perfect lemon bar. I’ve (unfortunately) eaten way too many that just aren’t right and even have an egg-y quality to the custard. Yuck. I can’t deal. So I am PUMPED to try your version. I know they’ll be perfect! Cheers to Sarah and her babe!
I was obsessed too back in 2012! Until I came up with this version from all the recipes I tried!! I hope you love it Liz, you have to let me know how it goes if you get a chance to make it!
Lemon squares!!! It has been ages since I’ve had a lemony dessert and for the life of me I can’t think of a reason, especially considering I could probably eat an entire lemon meringue pie to myself. Yours look so perfect, and it’s so nice to see that the Bob’s AP you used worked so well!
I could probably eat an entire lemon meringue pie too, Christine. We must be kindred spirits. :) Or at least well on our way to getting diabetes.
i DID go on a lemon bar diet after you left the rest at my house this weekend and it was GLORIOUS! I’m glad I have you to answer my late-night “omg how do you organize baby clothes” calls and talk me down from the ledge! I think this lil’ cheesebaby will be super well dressed, but only because of my mama;) Thank you for making and SHARING WITH ME IRL these amazing lemon squares for my virtual baby shower! I must say that once again, your dessert was one of the top crowd choices…
I was on a lemon bar diet too because I made these again after your party so that I could shoot them, and then there I was with an entire pan of bars and nothing to do but shove them in my face. Life is so hard.
I believe that these are the best- they look incredible! I LOVE lemon bars :) Pinning!
Thank you Medha! You are so sweet!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS LEMON BARS! 100% going to make these soon, for myself. No sharing.
Seriously though. Sharing is totes overrated.
ANYTHING lemon. It’s like my kryptonite. I desperately want these. Also? Sarah is a.ma.zing. I love her.
I’m so glad I know how to defeat you now Amy. I WILL DESTROY YOU. One lemon bar at a time.
(I didn’t like the fact that I just weirdly left a Facebook comment on your post accidentally, so am re-posting here)
I am such a bad blogger friend. I want to make a comment about how lovely your new blog layout is, but I haven’t been reading around the blogosphere in so long that this is probably like a year-old layout update.
…
IT STILL LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!!!!
Couldn’t resist. Also, these lemon bars. HOW HAD YOUR FRIEND NEVER HAD A LEMON BAR?! Thank the heaven she has you to enlighten/bake for her. She is a lucky duck. And now I want a lemon bar, thanks.
Aw thank you Erika!! My sister in law designed it, she is so talented. And the reason Tawna hadn’t had a lemon bar is because she has Celiac’s. She tried to bake her own but they didn’t work out. TRAGIC. so i fixed it. next im tackling donuts, she told me the only ones she’s had were frozen gf donuts that you microwave. shudder. wish me luck…I’m gonna need it.
Since your subbing stuff Karen, can you come up with a way to make these taste amazing with no carbs and no sugar? It’s really difficult reading all your delicious recipes, but knowing that i can’t make them and then stuff my face like when I was 30 and still keep my girlish figure. Getting old is the pits . . . I’m imagining eating these but it’s not the same. . .
Oh yeah sure Kris I’ll get right to work on that. Be sure to stay on my good side, because you will want to be on my A-list when I make billions for finding the solution to life’s greatest problem: why can’t I eat whatever I want?
Yum! Lemon bars make me thing of spring :). I can’t even imagine not being able to eat gluten.
Me too Laura! Just what I need for the gloomy weather we’ve been having around here! :)
How many lemons would you say that you used? I have so many fond memories of lemon bar eating…with my grandmother; at a bakery in Amish country in Pennsylvania; with you…oh no wait, that was lemon slurp.
Hmmm I think I used 3 or 4 very large lemons. Just buy a few, and if it’s not quite enough you could throw in a few squirts of refrigerated lemon juice to make up for it. Long live lemon slurp!!
Can you fill us in on the “center layer of leftovers”? It sounds yummy! (smirk)
It’s in the last picture, can’t you see it? Little bits of rice and chicken in between the crust and custard? Yum.
(I’m totally lying)
My husband does the exact same excessive shopping thing, which is why I try not to send him to the store often.
I want to make them at your house just to watch your face sweat Karen!