In my mind, I always had this vision of what lemon bars should be like. They should have a light crust, and be topped with a lot of lemon filling, then topped with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. I tried making lemon bars a few times, and was always disappointed with them, because they had this thin, thin layer of lemon. I know some of you may like them that way, but I wanted my lemon bars to be loaded with lemon. After searching around the world wide web a bit, I came across Ina Garten’s recipe for Lemon Bars. These bars looked promising. All I needed to do was convert them to contain no gluten.
The smell when you are preparing the filling for these bars is amazing. I love the smell when you zest a lemon (or any citrus fruit, really), it is so refreshing.
These lemon bars converted really well, and when we had them for dessert last night, my husband just says “They taste just the way I thought they should”. Finally, a lemon bar recipe that lives up to my standards and his. My daughter was sure to ask for some for her lunch kit today. My son has been begging me for a piece since 8:30 this morning. Yes, these lemon bars left an impression on all of us.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour blend (see Note)
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- pinch salt
For the Filling:
- 7 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp grated lemon zest (4-6 lemons)
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (I needed 6 lemons to get 1 cup)
- 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour blend (see NOTE)
- Confectioners’ Sugar for dusting
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, so the paper rises up the sides (I had it run up the 13″ sides, and left the 9″ sides bare). (This will make removing the squares much easier, as you can lift them out once they are cooled.)
- For the crust, in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Combine the flour & salt, and slowly add to the butter/sugar mixture while the mixer is on low. Mix just until it is combined. Dump the dough into your 9×13-inch pan, and using hands dusted with gluten-free flour, press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until very lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Leave the oven on.
- While the crust is baking, you can prepare the filling. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and gluten-free flour. Pour over your pre-baked crust and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
- To remove from pan, cut along 9″ edges, and use the parchment paper to lift the bars out to a cutting board. Using a sifter or wire sieve, dust the top of the bars with confectioners’ sugar. Cut into squares, and serve.
Source: Adapted from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
I've done the same thing with a non-gluten free lemon square recipe and they turned out great. The crust was more of a shortbread though, but these look amazing! I'm going to add them to my recipes-to-try list
@Whit Thanks, Whit! If you try them, let me know your thoughts.
These look gorgeous. Can you believe I only tried lemon bars a couple of years ago? I was in love (it had a lot to do with the shortbread-style crust of course). I need to work on an egg-free version! Congrats on a lovely looking lemon bar.
@Maggie Thanks, Maggie! You know, because of you I did a search for an egg-free lemon curd. It is possible, and I'm sure you could come up with something that would work for lemon bars quite well. After seeing your egg free breads, anything is possible!
they look just perfect…the lemon is making my mouth water…
these look and sound AMAZING!!! LOVE your website, thank you so much for yet another great recipe
@Susan Thanks, Mom!
@Anonymous Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy them!
Your photo looks fabulous. One of the first gf recipes I tried was for lemon bars. Unfortunately I am the only one in the house that likes them, so… I ended up eating the whole pan:( Maybe its time to make another batch, only this time I will give some away!
@laurie Thank you, Laurie! Hmm…a whole pan to yourself, I could think of worse things.
this really inspires me to jump out out of bed and into the kitchen to whip me up a batch of these. they look soooo. delicious.
@georgescookie, Yeah! So glad to hear that. Enjoy the time in the kitchen!
Wow! These look amazing! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I have some meyer lemons in my fridge and this might be the perfect place to use them!
Great photography! I've just discovered your blog and I'm drooling staring at all these beautiful photos and recipes.
@Couldn't Be Parve, Thank you. This really is a good use of lemons.
@singh from dominos india Welcome here, Singh. Thank you so much for the kind comment, I appreciate it.
Oh Jeanine, these lemom bars are just plain gorgeous and I'm thinking they taste as good as they look!!
I have tried many lemon bar recipes much to the delight of my daughters. We can't seem to say no to 'anything lemon':)
Really now I can spell 'lemon'..there..I did it:)
@betty r, Thank you, Betty! They really do (did) taste as good as they looked. Love the Lemons!
Jeanine these look fabulous! Lemon bars are a weakness of mine. I guess I have to come out of my attempt to avoid sugar and whip up some of these! Very beautiful!
@Jaye Tee, Thank you, Jaye Tee, I appreciate it.
Sorry to pull you back to sugar. Eep! I wonder if you could use natural sugars in place of the white sugar?
thanks so much for the info i will definitely try it out this weekend. thanks again.
Wow! Beautiful photos and the bars look lovely. I will be trying these this weekend with some Meyer lemons that need a job. Mine will have to be dairy-free as well as gluten-free, but that won't deter me! Thanks for the inspiration.
Yum, they sound delicious. I also love a lot of lemon – that is the best bit, the biscuit should just be there to support the lemon!!
@georgescookie, You're welcome!
@freeeats, Thank you.
Dairy free shouldn't be too hard to do, I'm sure they'll turn out fine. Let me know what changes you make!
@Katia, Exactly! The cookie is just there to keep the lemon on your fork on the way to your mouth.
These look great. How long do you think they would keep well? I need to make something for Saturday and want to get a head start and these would be perfect.
Yes. I will say for sure that this is the way lemon bars SHOULD be. Absolutely gorgeous!! This will be a huge treat for my Mother in Law. She loves lemon bars!!
And congrats on getting your photo approved for tastespotting!! So cooL!
@Couldn't be parve, If you need them for Saturday, I would bake them on Friday, but only dust with confectioners' sugar a bit before serving. Otherwise, the sugar will dissolve into the squares. HTH!
@Kim-Cook it Allergy Free, Thanks, Kim! I hope your MIL enjoys them. We're loving the lemon bars too, once the pan was empty my 5 year old says "I know how we can get more…just make some!"
These were AWESOME — thanks so much. My 15 yr old GF boy was speachless — no really — all he could say was "OH man" and grab two more squares.
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These look like just what I need for a lemon fix! Can’t wait to try them!
These look amazing, I’m planning to make some today, just wanted to double check that the amount of flour in the lemon curd is 1 CUP? Sounded like alot compared to other recipes I’ve read. Thanks for all the amazing recipes you post!! I really think you should open a gluten free bake-shop……preferably in San Diego!!!
Thanks, JL! I’d love to open a bake shop, but San Diego is far from home for me.
Yes, it is 1 cup, it probably seems high because, well, these lemon bars have twice the thickness of lemon compared to most bars. Enjoy!!
Is there a substitute I can use for the xanthan gum?
Hi Heidi,
you could try omitting it, but then your crust might be a little crumbly.
Made these this afternoon…yummy! I didn’t have any powdered sugar so I added a little granulated sugar to an 8oz carton of Marscapone, spread it on the cooled bars and refrigerated. Creamy and tasty.
Just happened upon your sight today while Google-ing recipes. I’m already hooked…will return again often I’m sure. Thank you!
I made these bars today with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour. I used the food processor to put together the crust, baked it, and added the filling mix. I had used just half the crust mixture in a 9 x 13 pan and baked it for 15 minutes at 350. The filling I changed slightly, zest of two large lemons, the juice of the two lemons, plus enough bottled lemon juice to equal 7/8 cup, 6 eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract, and 2/3 cup GF flour. When I poured the filling in, I almost panicked. The crust broke up as I poured it in. Decided to wait until it was baked, cooled and chilled. It came out great! Wonderfully lemony taste. It’s on our Christmas list for GF cookies for a friend who has to eat GF. (Also the Bon Appetit Peppermint Meringues). Thanks for the great recipe!
JoAnn, I had the same problem the second time I made them. I think the crust needs to sit for 5 minutes before pouring the filling in. However, like yours, it worked great in the end. Phew!
These are outstanding! Gifted them around the neighbourhood since I didn’t need to eat the whole pan myself and both my MIL and a neighbor thought these were better than the gluten version. We loved how the crust wasn’t as heavy as normal and it all just becomes a nice lemony melt in your mouth treat. Will be making again for sure!
Perfect!! I wish I were your neighbor.
Thanks for the feedback, Melanie!
Hi,
My mom has been gluten-free for a while now and she has been testing out different recipes to try and find foods that she can eat that also taste good. I found this recipe and made the lemon bars for her and they came out fantastic she is so excited to share this recipe with a group that she meets with every month!
Thank you!!
Sarah
Wonderful!! Gluten free definitely doesn’t mean that we have to sacrifice all the treats in life.
It CAN taste good too!
These were AHmazing! I subbed coconut oil for the butter, and baked the crust until little bubbles were forming (longer than the recommended cook time). Not sure if that was the right thing to do, but they tasted soooo good!! Thank you!
I hope you don’t mind, but I added this recipe to pinterest. It’s amazing and everyone should know about it. I also added your Lemon Cake recipe. A link to the recipes are included in the pin!
Thanks, Bryn! I <3 Pinterest!! Thanks for the add!
I cut this recipe in half because I am the only one who eats sweets, it turned out AWESOME!!
Glad to hear that, Anna! what size pan did you use if you halved it?
These couldn’t look more delicious Jeanine. I agree- lemon bars should be mostly lemon. And what an amazing yellow colour!
These are fantastic!!! I made these yesterday and am so happy with the results. Great consistency once cooled and loaded with lemon flavor.
I made a few small changes:
1) I used salted butter so there was no need to add salt
2) I used a chopper to grind the lemon zest
3) I reduced the sugar in the filling from 2.5 cups to 2 cups. I like my lemon bars tart – not sweet – and this was the perfect amount for me.
Also a note – it took a while for the dough to form.. It just looked like a floury dry mess at first and I was tempted to add almond milk but I’m glad I didn’t, because as I worked with it, it did finally end up being dough-like without the added liquid. I also used a spatula to even out the dough in the pan after pressing it in with my fingers.
Thanks for a fab recipe!!!
I LOVE lemon bars. The colour of these is just gorgeous! I’m going to make these for my Easter brunch and am excited to have such a wonderful dessert in my gluten free repertoire! If they turn out as well as I know the will, I want to bring these to my next staff meeting as one of our staff members is gluten intolerant. It’s exciting to surprise her with a treat she can have too!
Thanks, Lyndsay! That would be so sweet to bring something that the person who can’t eat gluten could enjoy as well.
I found that you have to pour the filling onto the crust carefully, best to pour it down a spoon. But, even if you think the crust is falling apart when pouring, it still bakes up (and serves) beautifully. 
YUMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!
These looked amazing and I had high hopes but they totally didn’t work for me. I used the flour mix you recommended and subbed coconut oil for the butter since I can’t have dairy. I don’t know what went wrong since everyone else seemed to like them but I probably won’t give them another try because the ingredients are too expensive to have to throw away another batch (yeah, they were that bad). Sorry.
Sorry to hear that, Hammy. I wonder if something like Earth Balance would have been a better substitute than coconut oil. I’m not sure, since I haven’t used either. Did the filling not even turn out? Odd…
The crust was the main issue. I haven’t tried earth balance because I can’t have soy either and haven’t been able to find their soy-free version anywhere, but I’ll keep that in mind. It looks like a few others used coconut oil as a substitute and liked how it turned out so I’m not sure why mine was such a disaster. It also did this weird thing where part of it separated and seeped through and made a weird tasteless gelatinous rubbery layer UNDER the crunchy part of the crust…that was the main reason I just had to throw them out. I don’t really have any explanation for that.
Oh, that is really strange. I have no idea why it would do that, doesn’t really make any sense. Well, one day when you find a soy free, dairy free ‘butter’, you’ll have to try again.
Wonder if it matters if you refrigerate the crust for 1/2 hr before baking, to solidify the coconut oil more? I’m not sure…just a thought.
Jeanine,
My daughter made these for Easter along with Cybele Paschal’s ginger carrot cake. We followed the recipe just as it is written and it turned out perfectly. None of our relatives could believe they were gluten-free! Everyone loved the lemon bars!! THANK YOU for sharing your recipe! It will be among our family favorites. Blessings to you and your family!
Awesome, Laura!
I’ve been craving these lemony squares for a while already, I may just have to break down & bake them (I’m sure no one here would mind).
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