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You are here: Home / Recipes / Lemon Bars

By Karina 21 Comments Filed Under: Cakes

Lemon Bars

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Lemon bars are the perfect buttery, sweet and tart dessert! Taste so sinful, you won’t believe they’re only 101 calories each!

Gooey, soft and custard-textured lemon curd bakes on top of a soft and buttery shortbread cookie crust, with HALF the amount of butter compared to most Lemon Bars recipes! Using a secret weapon I have on hand in my kitchen cupboard for these type of craving emergencies, these lemon bars are incredible!

101 calorie Lightened Up Lemon Bars are the perfect dessert and taste so sinful without the guilt! You won't believe they're lightened up! | https://cafedelites.com

Best Lemon Bar Recipe

Also known as lemon squares, these Lemon Bars have the perfect ratio of lemon-custard and melt-in-your-mouth cookie in every bite. Buttery, tart, sweet squares of joy, with the perfect amounts of lemon and sugar without adding too many calories, while the addition of butter AND apple sauce together creates a delicate cookie base that TASTES like a sinful dessert!

101 calorie Lightened Up Lemon Bars are the perfect dessert and taste so sinful without the guilt! You won't believe they're lightened up! | http://cafedelites.com

How To Make Lemon Bars

Like most of the desserts on this blog of mine, these lemon bars are so easy to make. In fact, you’re 3 easy steps away from the dessert you’ve ever made:

  1. Bake your cookie base — as mentioned above I use a combination of apple sauce and butter to cut down on calories. You can use all butter if you wish and leave out the apple sauce. It will not effect the end result.
  2. Whisk your lemon curd filling while the cookie base is in the oven.
  3. Pour the curd straight over the base while it’s still hot — this helps the curd cook faster in the oven without having to warm the base up again.

101 calorie Lightened Up Lemon Bars are the perfect dessert and taste so sinful without the guilt! You won't believe they're lightened up! | http://cafedelites.com

Tips

With the trials and errors (flat-out failures) over the years of trying to get the calories down on desserts, the one main tip I have for this recipe is do not use a granulated sweetener in place of the caster sugar in the lemon filling. The sweetener just creates a ‘layer’ of bitter-tasting sweetener granules in the middle and tastes awful when biting into them. Powdered sweetener works a lot better to cut the calories down even more if you need too, but I have to say that caster sugar (or super fine sugar) works better and melts right through the curd.

Then, bake your lemon bars until they are just set and perfectly golden!

101 calorie Lightened Up Lemon Bars are the perfect dessert and taste so sinful without the guilt! You won't believe they're lightened up! | https://cafedelites.com

Waiting for these to cool down is absolute TORTURE but so worth it! When cutting through them, the lemon sticks to your knife and you just know these are going to be so deliciously gooey and extremely addictive. So, it’s REALLY convenient that they’re only 101 calories. Believe me.

Dust on powdered sugar (or sweetener) over the top and be prepared for your minds to be blown into a million pieces.

101 calorie Lightened Up Lemon Bars are the perfect dessert and taste so sinful without the guilt! You won't believe they're lightened up! | https://cafedelites.com

Looking for more easy desserts? Try these!

Brownies
Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Cake
Easy Soft Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Lemon Bars

101 calorie Lightened Up Lemon Bars are the perfect dessert and taste so sinful without the guilt! You won't believe they're lightened up!
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Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 40 mins
Total: 55 mins
Serves: 20 bars

Ingredients

Crust:

  • 4 tablespoons light or reduced fat butter, room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar (or powdered sweetener)
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour)
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest

Filling:

  • 3 extra large eggs
  • 1 cup superfine or caster sugar (or powdered sweetener)*
  • 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (from 2-3 lemons)
  • 2 tablespoons plain | all-purpose flour

Topping:

  • 2-3 tablespoons powdered sugar (or powdered sweetener)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a 8x8-inch pan with parchment paper; set aside.
  • In a medium-sized bowl, combine together the butter, apple sauce, sugar (or sweetener), flour and cornstarch. Using a fork or your hands, blend ingredients together until sandy in consistency.
  • Pour into lined pan and press down evenly to form a base; bake for 20 minutes, or until firm and slightly golden.
  • While the base is baking, whisk the filling ingredients until well combined. As soon as the base comes out of the oven, give the filling one more whisk and pour the filling over the base.
  • Return to the oven and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes, or until just set.
  • Allow to cool for an hour before refrigerating for about 2 hours. Dust with confectioners, powdered or icing sugar (or powdered sweetener).
  • Cut into 20 squares and serve.

Notes

*Do not use a granulated sweetener in place of the caster sugar in the lemon filling. The sweetener just creates a 'layer' of granules in the middle somewhere, and tastes AWFUL when biting into them. Powdered sweetener works better if you need to cut the calories down even more.
If baking in a 9-inch pan, the layers will be slightly thinner.
Nutritional information is based on the ingredients I have used.

Nutrition

Calories: 101kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 34mg | Sodium: 13mg | Potassium: 24mg | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 95IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 0.5mg
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Katie says

    April 22, 2020 at 7:22 am

    Hi! I’m looking to try this recipie out and I’m wondering if cornstarch/corn flour is essential or can I just use normal flour?
    These look awesome! Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Gretchen says

    March 29, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    Can you tell me if unsalted stick butter is ok and what is the caster sugar? My Dad needs low sodium, low fat food- I think this would be a delicious treat. Thanks for your help

    Reply
  3. Jillian Baudry says

    January 29, 2020 at 9:50 pm

    5 stars
    Sooo delicious!Just made a batch of these with my little girl with lemons from the garden and she loves them too. They really deliver that lemony hit without the guilt feeling of a lemon tart which contains cream. You would never realise that these are lower fat.

    Reply
  4. Kimberly says

    February 25, 2019 at 5:39 pm

    I’m just curious if anyone had trouble getting 20 bars out of an 8×8 pan? I can’t imagine getting more than 16 teeny bars. We’ll see. It’s in the oven now and smelling delicious!

    Reply
  5. Young says

    July 16, 2018 at 11:45 am

    5 stars
    They turned out delicious! I love your recipes!!

    Reply
  6. jude says

    July 14, 2018 at 7:15 am

    What does this mean in the middle of your blog?
    MY LATEST VIDEOS

    I am so drawn to your recipes……….absolutely delicious!

    Reply
  7. Miranda says

    July 13, 2018 at 11:57 am

    4 stars
    Hi there,

    I love the recipe!
    One issue I had though is the crust came out really chewy and hard. How can I fix that ?

    Thanks ?

    Reply
    • Karina says

      July 14, 2018 at 3:32 am

      Oh no! I am so sorry! It may have over baked in the oven. I am so sorry. I hope you will try it again.

      Reply
  8. Wendy says

    July 13, 2018 at 9:57 am

    Looks and sounds delicious!! Would it be suitable to freeze?

    Reply
    • Karina says

      July 14, 2018 at 3:33 am

      I have never tried to freeze lemon bars but it sounds delicious to have on hand when needed. Let me know how they taste when you take them out.

      Reply
    • Adriana says

      February 18, 2019 at 2:54 am

      They freeze great!!! I do that all the time, and the flavor and/or texture do not suffer at all.

      Reply
  9. Debbie says

    July 12, 2018 at 11:23 pm

    5 stars
    Hello there, I’m from Australia and just wondering is all these recipes in US cup measures, as ours are different thank you

    Reply
    • Karina says

      July 12, 2018 at 11:59 pm

      Hi Debbie. I’m in Australia also and find when baking with either cup, they turn out exactly the same 🙂 We tested these with both and both turned out identical.

      Reply
  10. Bobbie says

    June 25, 2018 at 9:42 pm

    5 stars
    Love this recipe! The soft, lemony curd filling is absolutely spot-on and you’d never think there wasn’t any butter/added fat in it. I add the zest from the lemons into the filling too to really amp up the lemon flavour.

    Reply
    • Karina says

      June 26, 2018 at 6:40 am

      That is great to hear! These are one of my favorites and pretty simple to make. I am so glad that you enjoyed them! XO

      Reply
  11. Marcia says

    April 10, 2018 at 11:06 am

    Can u use Ghee butter and powdered sugar for the crust can u add in some dry roasted nuts?

    Reply
    • Karina says

      April 10, 2018 at 10:19 pm

      Yes, of course! It may alter the taste and even the texture but it will still taste great! Let me know how it turns out!

      Reply
  12. Eleanor Hawkins says

    March 26, 2018 at 7:54 am

    5 stars
    I Use To Make This With Condne

    Reply
  13. Christine Neal says

    January 08, 2018 at 7:57 am

    Can you use reconstituted lemon juice in this recipe?

    Reply
  14. Norma says

    March 17, 2017 at 1:15 am

    4 stars
    so happy to have found your site…

    Reply
  15. Suzy says

    August 16, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    Love ur stuff ❤️❤️❤️❤️

    Reply

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