This delicious Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust recipe features a buttery shortbread crust and a no bake tangy lemon curd filling topped with powdered sugar. Though these need chilling, they feed a bunch of people so are a great option if you want to fill lunch boxes for the week or have to bring a plate.
Table of Contents
Ingredients and substitutions for 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 as this helps avoid them curdling as they heat.
- 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:
Make that shortcrust base: Toss all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Butter crumble: Add the cubed butter and cut into the flour mixture until it resembles rough breadcrumbs.
1
Base it: Pour the shortcrust mix and press firmly to smooth out.
2
Bake: Bake the crust until lightly golden.
Lemon sugar: Rub the sugar and lemon zest to coat the zest thoroughly with sugar and draw out the oils in the peel.
3
Heat: Toss into a saucepan with the corn starch and lemon juice until thickened and it has gone from looking cloudy to more transparent.
4
Meanwhile: Whisk the egg yolks and heavy cream in a separate bowl until combined.
5
Hot lemon: Pour the egg and cream mixture into the hot lemon mixture.
Return: To the heat and stir constantly until bubbling and thickened.
Strain or pour: If preferred, on top of your shortbread base and spread out evenly.
6
Bake: Until only slightly jiggly.
Cool and chill: For several hours or preferably overnight.
Slice: Into thick pieces and serve up.
Sprinkle: A little confectioner's or icing sugar over.
Enjoy: Dig in!
FAQ’s for the best Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust
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.
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Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust
Ingredients
Shortbread base
- 140 grams / 4.9 ounces butter room temperature
- 200 grams / 1 ¼ cups plain flour
Lemon curd
- 250 grams / 1 ¼ cups superfine/caster sugar
- 5 grams / 1 tablespoon lemon zest finely chopped
- 30 grams / ¼ cup corn starch sifted
- 153 grams / ⅔ cup lemon juice fresh
- 80 grams / 4 large egg yolks room temperature
- 200 milliliters / 1 cup - 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
Shortbread base
- 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 10 minutes or until ever so slightly golden.
- Remove and allow to cool fully and lower the oven temperature to 140C/285F.
Lemon curd
- 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!
Notes
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- Offset spatula: A small spatula helps smooth out the shortbread and lemon curd layers.
- 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.
Nutrition
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