Name: Old Fashioned Lemon Bars
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 65 min
Ingredients: 125 g plain flour; 125 g icing sugar; 115 g butter; a pinch of salt; 1 tbsp lemon rind; 3 eggs; 125 ml lemon juice (strained); 375 g castor sugar; 125 g plain flour; Icing sugar

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A classic, no fail lemon bars recipe that gives the most perfect lemon filled bars every single time. They are quick and easy and make really perfect dessert for any occasion.

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These old fashioned lemon bars are definitely one of my favorites. I love all lemon desserts and these lemon bars just my kind of dessert.

3 lemon bars on a green rectangle plate with one bar on a doily outside the plate

I love these old fashioned lemon bars for 2 reasons. Firstly because they taste so good, like really so good with a layer of thick lemon filling sandwiched between a layer of buttery shortcrust pastry at the bottom and a sweet layer of icing sugar on top. My mouth waters even as I write this…

Secondly, these lemon bars are so quick and easy to make. With only 5 ingredients, this dessert can be whipped up in no time at all. Good, isn’t it?

How to Make Old Fashioned Lemon Bars

Ingredients

Plain flour

This is used in both the pastry as well as the filling. While it is no surprise to see plain flour used for pastries, it is also used in making the lemon filling albeit in very small quantity.
The flour helps in filling to thicken and set well which makes it easy for cutting and serving.

Sugar

I used 2 types of sugar in this recipe – icing sugar and granulated sugar. Icing sugar is for the pastry. I find that it is more easily incorporates into the pastry mix and so prefer to use it for the pastry.
For the lemon filling, I used granulated sugar. Since the lemon filling is in liquid form, the sugar has no problem dissolving. If you do not have icing sugar, measure granulated sugar to the amount provided for icing sugar in the recipe and run it in your food processor for a few seconds.
The other point about icing sugar is that it is often lumpy, so it is best that you sieve it first so that you do not end up with sugar lumps in the baked pastry.

Eggs

Eggs are used only for the filling and they play a big role in the color of the lemon filling. The eggs I used for making the bars on this page are slightly more orange. And so my lemon filling turned slightly orangy too. There is no difference to the taste though. So if you want a more lemon-like yellow filling, make sure the egg yolks you use are of a light yellow color.

Lemons

This is the star ingredient of this lemon bars recipe. I used the rind in my pastry and the juice in the filling. For the amount of rind I used, you would need the rind of about half a lemon.
Adding rind into the lemon bars pastry gives it the lovely lemon flavor and pairs perfectly with the lemon filling. As for the juice, for the amount used in the recipe, I had to juice 1 full lemon and another 2/3 of a lemon.
And I made sure I strained the lemon juice before measuring it for 2 reasons.
Firstly, I did not want any pulp or seeds in my lemon filling. Secondly, leaving the pulp and seeds out can reduce the amount of lemon juice notably. So I chose to measure the juice after all the pulp and seeds have been strained out.

Butter

I used salted butter for my pastry. In fact, I use salted butter in all my cakes and cookies. If you prefer unsalted butter, increase the amount of salt that you add separately into the pastry.
When mixing butter into the flour and sugar mix, you can use a cake mixer as it makes the entire mixing process so much faster. But if you prefer the good old way of using your fingers to rub the butter into the flour and sugar, it is perfectly fine too.

Salt

I only use a pinch of salt in my lemon bars pastry. And that is because of the salted butter I prefer to use in all my recipes. And when I say a pinch, I literally mean just a pinch so that the pastry does not end up too salty.

Making the lemon bars

I baked my lemon bars in a normal 8 inches square cake tin. And it is always important to remember to line your tins well. You are literally unable to turn the pastry out of the tin once it’s baked. So the only option you have is to lift it up from the tray.
This, I assure you is not an easy task. Unless you cut it up into pieces before taking them out of the tray. So the best way is to lift it out of the tin by the parchment paper extras on the sides.

Shortbread pasty pressed into a prepared square tin — ***Shortbread pastry pressed into a square cake tin. See how the sides are slightly taller all around the sides.***

Since I used a 2 inches high cake tin, I used 2 pieces of rectangle parchment paper to line my tin. One placed horizontally and the other placed vertically. And I made sure the pieces were long enough that I had them showing up a good 2 inches from the sides of the cake tin.
The other important thing to note is to grease the tin and the papers. This helps making sure any lemon filling that flows to the sides of the pastry does not cause it to stick to the cake tin.

Lemon dessert bar block removed from the tin after baking — ***All baked and out of the cake tin.***

Lemon bars all cut up and ready to be enjoyed!

A stack of 4 lemon shortbread bars on a doily

Classic Old Fashioned Lemon Bars Recipe

Here is the full, printable version of my lemon bars recipe:

Old Fashioned Lemon Bars

A classic, no fail lemon bars recipe that gives the most perfect lemon filled bars every single time. They are quick and easy and make really perfect dessert for any occasion.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Old Fashioned Lemon Bars

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Yield: 1 Eight inches square block

Author: Priya Maha

Metric – US Customary