The BEST Lemon Bars Recipe

Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making some zingy, delicious lemon bars. So let's get started. First off, set your oven to 350, and fully line a nine-by-13-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Now, in a large bowl, we're gonna get those dry ingredients together. Our shortbread crust will need three cups, or 360 grams, of all-purpose flour. Perfect. To the flour, we're adding 3 1⁄4 of a cup, or 90 grams, of powdered sugar. And 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt for some contrast. Grab a whisk. Our scale is done. So we're gonna mix this up. Lemon bars are a favorite. Zingy, full of flavor, and the textures are great, too. You get a really luscious, gooey top with that melt-in-your-mouth shortbread bottom. It's delicious. Okay, that's good. I've melted 3⁄4 of a cup, plus two tablespoons, or 200 grams, of unsalted butter. If you want a little kiss of flavor, you could add a dash, or a teaspoon, of vanilla. And just mix that in. Totally optional, but I love it. Now we're gonna pour the butter in, and mix together with our spatula. This mixes up so easily, but if you wanted to, you could totally use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Lemon bars fall into the quick and easy category of recipes, and there's really only one thing that can go wrong, and that is the floating crust. Sometimes you'll get a crust that floats up during baking, and the filling is on the bottom, but the crust is on top. That will only happen if there are gaps in your crust. So, I just wanna encourage you in this recipe to get a nice, even coverage. There's plenty of short crust to go around for a nine by 13 inch pan, and really do a good job pressing it down. No gaps. Even if it's baked upside down, it'd still be delicious, but we don't want that to happen. Just gonna use my clean hand, and work this together, and get rid of any remaining bits of flour. I'm not kneading it, I'm just pressing it. My flour's disappeared, so now we're gonna sprinkle this into our pan. Right now, I'm just breaking my shortbread into little crumbles, so I can distribute it evenly into my pan. Sprinkle your shortbread into your baking dish, and I'm just giving this a head start by distributing it evenly to begin with. Work this into an even layer with your fingers. And by the way, if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button. There's two new recipes every week. Now, use your clean, strong hands to press this into an even layer. The one thing you don't want, or any gaps or cracks, because the lemon filling will go into those cracks during the baking, and lift the crust up. So give it a good press. I'm using a flat-bottomed glass just to seal the deal and finish this off. But that's kind of an optional step. Shortbread is a Scottish invention, meant to evade taxes, because there was a tax on biscuits, so they called it bread. And curds have been around forever, but this dessert, which combines a lemon curd and a shortbread crust, is really like from the 1950s in America. The first widely disseminated lemon bar recipe came from 1962 in the Chicago Tribune, and it was submitted by Eleanor Michelson. So, Eleanor, thank you for doing that. You could also use an offset spatula just to get those corners and edges and give you the most beautiful shortbread crust anyone's ever, never seen, as it'll be covered. My shortbread crust is ready to go into the oven, 350, for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it's a light golden color. It'll also smell delicious. In the meantime, we'll start our lemon curd. Into the bowl of your food processor, we're gonna add three cups, or 600 grams, of granulated sugar. To the sugar, we're gonna add three tablespoons of lemon zest. That's the zest of about three lemons. For this step, if you don't have a food processor and you're using a big bowl, I would mince the lemon zest and then just work it into the sugar by hand. So you're gonna rub it together until the sugar feels like wet sand that's a light yellow color and smells amazing. The idea is that we're gonna get all these delicious lemon oils out of the lemon zest for maximum flavor. One. And of course, we're gonna juice these lemons as well, but zesting is always first. Two. And three. I'm gonna set that aside, and now it's time to juice our lemons. You wanna end up with one cup of lemon juice. And of course, for this recipe, you would always use fresh lemon juice, not from concentrate or anything like that. If you have any helpers in the kitchen, now's the time to call them. Okay, get all that juice out. So this is gonna be the flavor that we need, so it's worth the effort. So close. Okay, perfect, one cup exactly. No seeds, please. Grab your food processor. You're gonna pulse this until the sugar is a nice light yellow color. It's also breaking up those bits of lemon zest, so you'll have a smoother curd if you decided not to strain this. A beautiful light yellow color. It looks like it's kind of a wet sand texture, and it smells amazing. Our processor's done. We're gonna dump this into a big bowl now. To my lemon sugar, I'm gonna add half a cup or 60 grams of all-purpose flour. So sprinkle that in. We're gonna whisk this in nicely. Flour is a thickening agent that'll help our curd set nicely. Lovely. Time to pour your one cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice in and to this, we'll add eight room-temperature eggs. No shells. I'm gonna crack these into a separate bowl just so I can be sure. If you're very concerned about shells, you can crack your eggs into the bowl one at a time, transferring each one before cracking the next. And eight. Final check for shells. Perfect. And we'll add that into our sugar mixture. Give this a good mix just to get it all well-combined. Mm. This is so much easier and nicer than making a traditional lemon curd where you're cooking it on the stove. Oh my gosh. It's beyond easy. You definitely wanna make the crust and the filling at the same time. So this should be done while the crust is in the oven because you're gonna pour this in to the hot crust. This will give your filling a jumpstart in baking and just make everything work out nicely. By the way, this lovely color you see that everyone identifies with lemon curd does not come from the lemons. It comes from the yolk of the eggs you use. Nicely mixed. My crust has about five minutes. I'm gonna clean up and be ready for the next step. Fresh out of the oven. This is very hot, so be careful. Give your filling one final stir since it's probably been sitting for a few minutes. And pour right into your hot crust. Get all of it out. My lemon bars are ready to go into the oven, 350 for about 25 minutes, turning halfway through. You'll know they're done because the center will only have a very slight jiggle. They'll continue to set as they cool. In you go. When your lemon bars come out of the oven, let them cool for about an hour and then pop them into the fridge to chill for at least two hours. Then we can finish them off and give them a cut. The lemon curd is sticky, so gently pull up on the edges to release. There we go. My parchment did its job, so let's get rid of all of it. Grab some powdered sugar and a sifter. And we're gonna top it up. That's the signature look we all know and love. Perfect. I have a damp paper towel here because it will help if your knife is dampened to get nice, clean cuts. Your lemon bars can be as big or as small as you'd like. I suggest 15 would be a nice number. Wipe your knife off in between each cut. Your lemon bars will last a week in an airtight container in the fridge, or you can freeze them for up to three months. Just cut them, freeze them on a baking sheet, and then once frozen, pop them into a container. These got a perfect bake. They're not overdone. They're not underdone. They're juicy and you can just tell it's gonna be delicious. Two little helpers have been asking, are these lemon bars done yet? And they finally are. So would you like a little taste? Yeah. All right, let's have a bite. How's it taste? Good. Mm. High praise. The shortbread crust is so nice and melt in your mouth. The lemon curd is zingy, full of flavor, and so juicy. And together, it might just be the perfect treat. I hope you had a chance to make this amazing recipe. And if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button and check out my lemon playlist.