Frosted Lemon Bars
I love all kinds of lemon bars. I used to make a version in high school that had a kind of shortbread crust with a super tart, super yellow center, and the whole thing was covered in powdered sugar. They were the best things a lemon had to offer…
Until I found these!
These little guys have the same moist and cakey texture of a great brownie. My son calls them “little cakes”. They’re packed with fresh lemon juice and zest, and they’re covered in a sweet, creamy lemon frosting.
I could list all the names of husbands, sons, cousins, uncles, aunts, parents, and friends who adore these tasty little treasures, but I’ll just promise you that every person that tries my Frosted Lemon Bars loves them!
Please try them out for yourself, and let me know what you think!
Frosted Lemon Bars Recipe
Print recipe Ingredients
Bars
- 1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (don't use kosher here)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (about one medium lemon's worth)
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (about two lemon's worth)
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
Frosting
- 3/4 cups powdered sugar (plus about another Tablespoon)
Directions
| Lemon Bars | |
| Step 1 | |
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a square pan. I used an 8x8 but I'm sure a 9x9 would work just as deliciously. I sprayed my pan with Bakers Joy and then had a bit of a mishap (which I'll show you later) when removing the cooked bars. So you might want to actually grease your pan by hand.  | |
| Step 2 | |
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Sift together the sugar, flour and salt to make sure you work out any big lumps like these.  | |
| Step 3 | |
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Add the dry mix and softened butter to the bowl of your mixer.  | |
| Step 4 | |
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Mix on medium high speed until you have fairly uniform clumps like these.  | |
| Step 5 | |
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We always have lemons in our kitchen, but they're never the same size. At any given time, I'll have a mix like this. Just so you know what I mean when i say "about one medium lemon's worth" in the ingredients list, I used the lemon in the middle to get the 2Tbs of juice.  | |
| Step 6 | |
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However my "juicer" just didn't yield quite enough zest for me, so I had to use both of the smaller lemons to get my tablespoon of zest.  | |
| Step 7 | |
| In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and zest with a fork. Then add that lemon scented yellowness to the clumps in your mixer. | |
| Step 8 | |
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Mix on high for about one minute, or until you end up with a fluffy batter that looks like this.  | |
| Step 9 | |
| Spread the batter into your pre-greased pan, and bake at 350 degrees for around 25 minutes. Your oven and the type of pan you use will affect the cooking time. I would check at 20 minutes and then every 5 minutes after until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the pan. | |
| Step 10 | |
| While the bars are baking, move onto the glaze. | |
| Lemon Glaze | |
| Step 11 | |
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Whisk together the 1c. powdered sugar, 3tsp. zest and 1/4c. juice.  | |
| Step 12 | |
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Be warned. If you turn around to write a note down in your recipe book, you might turn back to find help. Why did I ever teach him to use a stool to reach things?  | |
| Step 13 | |
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This makes around 2/3c. of glaze. You'll be using half of this as soon as the bars come out of the oven and the other half later to make a thicker frosting. I suggest transferring the glaze into a liquid measuring cup. This will make it easier to pour, and make it easy to use half at a time.  | |
| Step 14 | |
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Pour about half of the glaze over the hot lemony goodness.  | |
| Step 15 | |
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Quickly spread the lemon glaze over the whole square, and then sit back and wait while the whole thing cools.  | |
| Lemon Frosting | |
| Step 16 | |
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Once the bars are completely cooled carefully transfer them from their pan to a cutting board. This is where the mishap occurred. I felt like the sides had all been loosened; my spatula was thin and adept; the pan had been greased. What could go wrong? Well this...  | |
| Step 17 | |
| That's right. Three separate pieces that I had to piece back together like a jigsaw puzzle. As my mom always loved saying when my Grandma Jessie Bell would crack one of her delicious cakes, "Hopefully it'll taste better than it looks." | |
| Step 18 | |
| Despite my misfortune, I still think moving them to a cutting board before frosting is the way to go. It's easier to spread the frosting evenly, and it's way easier to cut and plate them. But to each his own, so go with your gut! | |
| Step 19 | |
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Pour the second half of the lemon glaze into your mixer.  | |
| Step 20 | |
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Now start adding in powdered sugar a little at a time whisking on high.  | |
| Step 21 | |
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I added in sugar in three batches scraping down the sides in between. Once it was all said and done I had added about 3/4c. plus about another tablespoon. You're looking for an icing that's thicker than your glaze but not quite as thick as a frosting you'd wanna use to ice a cake.  | |
| Step 22 | |
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Here's a shot of mine dripping off the whisk back into the bowl. It's thick enough to frost the top without falling into my huge cracks! But it's thin enough to spread easily and stay nice and shiny.  | |
| Step 23 | |
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Pile all of your creamy lemon happiness into the center of your square.  | |
| Step 24 | |
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Use a flat spatula or butter knife to smooth the shiny frosting evenly over the top.  | |
| Step 25 | |
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See no cracks! Can you believe it? Neither could I. If you can stand it, try to wait until the frosting has set up before you start cutting the bars. This will save you a big mess.  | |
| Step 26 | |
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I used a sharp knife and cut with a purpose removing each bar to a plate as it was cut. And, believe it or not, every single bar came out evenly despite my big old cracks!  | |
| Step 27 | |
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I really hope you love these little guys as much as my family does!  | |
Something I recently learned on THE CHEW, cut a piece of parchment paper as wide as your baking dish and about 10 inches longer – put a bit of butter on the bottom of your baking dish then (to make the parchment stick) line the bottom of the dish with the paper leaving the extra length of paper draped over 2 sides to use to lift your cake (brownies, etc) out of your pan in one piece. Butter your baking pan per recipe directions after lining with parchment.
I love it! I’m addicted to parchment paper when baking, so I can’t believe I haven’t tried this!
I made this like a zillion time, it’s so yum I can’t stop myself and so easy to bake it takes me hardly half hour To complete the whole proces’s thank you so much for such an amazing gooey recipe
Thank you so much, I’m thrilled that you like them! We’ve just started a round of Whole 30, but I think I’m gonna have to make these as soon as we’re done!