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Recipe updated 6/3/16
Lemon bars have been on my radar for about a year now. I love lemon bars and worked on them last year but never got great results. When thinking of recipes I could post for Easter, lemon bars immediately jumped to my mind again, so I gave them another whirl – this time successfully. These aren’t exactly what I was aiming for, but they sure are good so I’m posting them. I was originally going for a gooier lemon bar like I’ve had traditionally, but these are a little cheesecakey. Which is totally awesome. But I’m still going to do those gooey lemon bars eventually. That’s the operative word for a lot of my recipe ideas…”eventually”.
Perfect for an Easter or spring-time party, these lemon bars are the ideal balance of tart and sweet. Light yellow in color, very moist, and so refreshing, a bite into one of these is like springtime in your mouth.
The ingredients list might look a little long, but these bars are actually quite easy to make.  A lot of those ingredients are repeat ingredients that go into both the crust and the lemony filling that gets baked on top of it. Trim Healthy Mamas (click here for my synopsis of the plan), these bars are a great S dessert!
A note on the name: at Bible school there was a discussion about whether food items like this recipe are called “squares” or “bars”. I’ve always called them “bars” (Butterfinger Bars – case in point), but I thought that “Lemon Squares” sounded elegant, like tea party food. So there ya go. You can call them Lemon Bars if you like; I really don’t care.
Bars or Squares…whichever they are, they’re great. Refreshing, delightful, with a flavor that I can only describe as “bright”….yeah, you definitely need to make these for Easter. Or your next tea party.
You can snag my “official” pin for this recipe here.
Question of the day (comment below; I want to hear from you!): bars or squares?
You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- ½ cup Briana's Baking Mix
- ¼ cup oat fiber (use gluten free if necessary)
- 1 tsp. THM Super Sweet Blend
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. xanthan gum
- 6 T salted butter, softened
- 2 T Greek yogurt
- 8 oz. cream cheese (if using full fat, soften it first)
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 2 T oat fiber (use gluten free if necessary)
- ¼ tsp. THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- ¼ tsp. turmeric (for color)
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- -
- 2 tsp. Knox gelatin (if using beef gelatin such as Great Lakes brand or THM Just Gelatin, add an extra ½ tsp.)
- ½ tsp. xanthan gum
- -
- ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk (or carton coconut milk for a nut free version)
- ½ cup lemon juice
- Whisk the dry ingredients for the crust together, then add the butter and Greek yogurt and mix with a hand mixer. Press into a greased 8x8" pan. Set aside (do not prebake).
- Using a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, Greek yogurt, eggs, oat fiber, stevia, turmeric, salt, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the gelatin and xanthan gum while mixing so they don't clump.
- Add the almond milk and lemon juice slowly while mixing. Mix until smooth.
- Pour the mixture onto the crust and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until set. Refrigerate to chill completely before cutting and serving. Yields 9 servings.
Briana’s Baking Mix recipe
Suggested products:
- Xanthan Gum
- Oat Fiber
- THM Oat Fiber (gluten-free)
- THM Sweet Blend
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- Knox plain bulk gelatin
My sister loves Lemon Squares so I really want to try this recipe! Do you typically use fresh lemon juice or bottled? Have you tried it both ways? Which one tasted the best?
I usually use the bottled lemon juice and I doubt there’s a huge difference in flavor, but using fresh lemon juice will probably give them a little bit of extra “pop”!
I WOULD like to make this for our monthly ladies meeting but…I don’t have your baking blend, what I have is thm baking blend and no super sweet. The other sweetners I do have;
stevia, gentle sweet, erythritol, xylitol.. Any ideas???
Hi there! THM Baking Blend doesn’t soak up quite as much liquid as my baking mix does, so I’d use 1/2 cup plus 2-3 T in the crust. As far as sweetener goes, you’re welcome to just use your favorite sweetener to taste. 🙂 This conversion chart can help you with rough estimates, but always start with less than you think you’ll need and taste as you go. 🙂 https://media.trimhealthymama.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/05/07222306/THM.Sweetener-Conversion-Chart.pdf
Hi regarding the lemon bars I don’t see any lemon in the ingredients and have you since you did this recipe made another lemon bar recipe that’s not as cheese cakeee?
The bars call for 1/2 cup lemon juice. It’s the last ingredient in the “Lemon Layer” section in the recipe. I do have a more lemony lemon bar recipe in my cookbook on page 333. 🙂
In Canada we call them squares! 🙂 Ty for the recipe – can’t wait to try. D
I made them just like recipe. but I thought they should be sweeter. Is the pyure sweetner a pure stevia powder? I still liked them and will make again!
I believe Pyure is actually a blend of sweeteners, so it’s not nearly as concentrated as pure stevia. 🙂 You’ll need quite a bit of Pyure to make up for the stevia in sweetness. If you find out how Pyure compares in sweetness to sugar, you can use this sweetened conversion chart to help you convert between sweeteners: http://www.trimhealthymama.com/main-home/sweetener-conversion-chart/
Thank you so much! I have a conversation chart on my cabinet door. I forgot to look at it! ?
Squares or bars…it’s a regional thing. I grew up in Oregon and we called them lemon “squares.” But, in the midwest, everything from a pan is a “bar”! :o)
Can i substitute something for the oat fiber? I don’t have any of that yet…
Oat fiber has a really fine texture and works well for a thickener, so I don’t know of any good substitutions. I know some people substitute psyllium husks for oat fiber, but I’ve never tried it. You could try just leaving it out and hope for the best, but I really recommend getting some oat fiber. I order it from Netrition.com, and it’s very affordable.
Thank you Briana! Anything with lemon is delish! And when it’s thm’fied- then it’s doubly delicious!
Will be giving this a go tomorrow although I must admit I keep putting this off because I’ll sit & eat the whole thing!! Hehe!
Ho want pieces are we allowed anyway?
Serving size always varies according to the person and what else he/she is eating at the same time so I don’t like to lay down hard and fast rules. As long as you eat until you’re satisfied but not stuffed, you should be fine. 🙂
I’m on my way to the kitchen, just wondering, this looks like an S with the egg yolks . But I’m not sure, is it an S?
Yes ma’am! There are lots of healthy fats in this recipe.
Do you think I could directly substitute almond flour for the coconut flour?
Hi Heather, almond and coconut flours are very different, so it wouldn’t be a 1:1 substitution. Coconut flour soaks up a lot more liquid and needs more conditioners such as eggs and yogurt, so if you use almond flour you’d need more if it and may need to decrease the conditioners/liquid.
This sounds and looks delicious. However, I’m wondering what you could suggest instead of Almond milk (nut allergy)?
I think there’s a low-calorie unsweetened coconut milk in cartons similar to unsweetened almond milk? I’m not referring to the canned kind. I assume that would work in place of the almond milk. 🙂
Beautiful photos and such a detailed blog post! Thank you for sharing all your hard work for us to have a treat 🙂
Thank you for the kind words; you are very welcome!
Looks yummy! I grew up in the states, and we always called things like that bars. When moving to Canada, I was quite surprised to discover that everyone up here calls them squares. I guess it’s a regional/country thing! 🙂
Can’t wait to try these! I’m used to calling them bars, but squares sound great, too!
These look yummy Briana! 🙂
I love that you used coconut flour in this! I have a nut allergy so there are many recipes that don’t work for me. I can’t wait to try this one! 🙂