Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust

This delicious Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust recipe features a buttery shortbread crust and a tangy lemon curd filling topped with powdered sugar.

Whether you're hosting a party or just looking to satisfy your sweet tooth, our Lemon Bars are sure to be a hit.

Why you’ll love this

The light buttery shortbread base

It's super simple, is only two ingredients and bakes up beautifully whilst being a nice shortbread foundation for the tart curd.

The lemon curd

The intensity of lemon can be tasted in these bars that allows the flavor to truly shine.

Ingredients and substitutions for the best Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust

• Plain flour: Plain or all purpose works best here for a nice shortbread base. You could replace with bread flour in equal measure, if that’s all you have on hand. It is not recommended to use cake flour as this would be too fine and wouldn’t give our base a firm texture.
• Butter: Room temperature unsalted butter is used here, though salted butter would also work if that’s what you have on hand. Room temperature is best because it combines with the sugar and other base ingredients best.
• Sugar: As a result of using superfine or caster sugar, the nice fine granules dissolve and add sweetness without adding additional flavors to the curd.
• Corn starch: Sometimes termed cornflour in certain parts of the globe. Corn starch does need to be heated to 95C/203F before it is activated to thicken and acts as insurance in setting our center during the baking process alongside the egg yolks.
• Eggs: The fat in the curd adds richness alongside the butter. The egg yolks should be room temperature and the weight from large eggs will be between 65-70 grams.
• Heavy cream: The fat in the heavy cream cuts through the intensity of the lemon flavor to mellow it out. You could substitute with non dairy heavy cream, though this has not been tested so the final result cannot be guaranteed.
• Lemon juice: This has to be fresh because bottled lemon juice tends to have additives to prolong it’s life and will not taste the same. Also, these lemon bars pack a punchy flavor - anyone who loves lemon will appreciate that; but anyone who doesn’t might say the flavor is a little too much. You could simply add 122 grams / ½ cup lemon juice instead, if you prefer.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350F and line a baking tin with greaseproof paper.

Place the flour and butter into a bowl and beat on low until the mixture looks like a rough crumble and no piece of butter is larger than a pea.

Spoon into your baking dish and press firmly until even.

Place in the oven and bake for 12 minutes or until ever so slightly golden.

Remove and allow to cool fully and lower the oven temperature to 140C/285F.

Meanwhile, place the sugar and lemon zest into a bowl and rub together to coat the zest thoroughly with sugar and draw out the oils in the peel.

Toss into a small saucepan and add the corn starch and lemon juice placing on medium heat, stirring swiftly with a spatula until thickened and it has gone from looking cloudy to more transparent.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and heavy cream in a separate bowl until combined.

Remove from the heat and add in the egg and cream mixture, whisking swiftly to combine.

Return to the heat and stir constantly until bubbling and thickened, approximately 3 minutes.

Strain, if required, though not essential, on top of your shortbread base and spread out evenly.

Bake for 25 minutes or until only slightly jiggly.

Remove and allow to cool completely and then chill for several hours or preferably overnight.

Slice into thick pieces and serve up.

Sprinkle over a little confectioner's or icing sugar.

Dig in!

Equipment needed to make this

Greaseproof paper: Lining your tin will make getting your Lemon Bars out a breeze!

Offset spatula: A small spatula helps smooth out shortbread base, curd filling and shaping the meringue topping to your preference.

Baking tin: A 18x18 cm or 7x7 inch square baking tin works well here, though a rectangle tin would also work well. Note, the larger the tin from the one used here, the thinner your base and curd will be.

Small saucepan: To make the lemon curd, you’ll need a small saucepan or pot made of stainless steel because the acidity in lemon juice can risk tasting metallic (or turning green) if made in a reactive saucepan (think cast iron, unlined copper or aluminum).

Silicone spatula: A silicone spatula is best for combining the curd.

FAQ’s for the best Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust

Should I make lemon curd in a double boiler?

Controversial opinion here is that you don’t need to…if you have a stainless steel saucepan then making the curd straight in the saucepan is the fastest option. After trying to make the curd in a double boiler, with both a ceramic bowl and stainless steel bowl and the heat to thicken the juice and cornstarch just never got there, despite cooking for over an hour…the double boiler situation was just a no. So, if you have a stainless steel saucepan then use that with a silicone spatula and the curd will come together quickly, like within 5 minutes quick without adding a metal undertone in flavor.

More lemon desserts you’ll love

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Coconut Cake with Lemon Curd Icing

Lemon Cheesecake Bars

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