Recipe video above. Just a handful of ingredients is all that's required to make these fresh bars with a beautiful classic shortbread base topped with a lemon curd. This is a really easy recipe, just ensure you don't overbake!
Recipe by Nagi | RecipeTin Eats on September 8, 2023
Prep time: PT15M
Cook time: PT40M
Total time: PT235M
Rating
4.91 stars (154 reviews)
Keywords
easy lemon bars
Ingredients
3/4 cup plain flour ((all purpose flour))
1/4 cup rice flour ((or cornstarch/cornflour) (Note 1))
1 cup caster sugar / super-fine sugar ((sub regular sugar))
2 tbsp plain flour ((all purpose flour))
1 tbsp lemon zest ((do this before juicing))
1/2 cup lemon juice ((2 - 3 lemons))
Categories
Sweet Baking
Cuisine
Western
Steps
Preheat oven to 180C/350F (160C fan). Spray a 20cm/8" square tin with oil and line with baking/parchment paper with overhang (so it can be lifted out once cooked).
Base - Place Shortbread Base ingredients in a food processor fitted with the standard "S" blade. Pulse 5 to 10 times until it becomes like sand. (Or use tips of fingers, Note 2). Pour into the tin, spread, then press firmly into the base, pushing it right up to the edges. Using something flat to press in is helpful!
Bake base for 20 minutes or until golden on the edges and pale golden in the middle. Remove from oven. (⚠️ Note: don't let it cool, pour in curd immediately).
Lemon Curd - While the base is baking, place Lemon Topping ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined.
Bake 20 minutes - Pour Lemon Curd onto base, then bake for 20 minutes until the topping is set but still soft.
Cool - Remove from then oven and cool on the counter for 1 hour, then fridge for at least 2 hours. Slice into 16 squares. Dust with icing sugar (confectionary sugar) and serve!
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 55 g
Calories: 186 kcal
Carbohydrates: 30.3 g
Protein: 2.2 g
Fat: 6.8 g
Saturated Fat: 4 g
Cholesterol: 50 mg
Sodium: 90 mg
Sugar: 22.6 g
Reviews
Lyndsay on 2026-06-14 (5 stars): Made gluten free by subbing King Arthur GF flour for other flours and added 1TB cornstarch. Everything else was the same. PERFECT recipe!
Sue Mitchelhill on 2026-06-07 (5 stars): Forgot the star rating 🙄
Also made this gluten free & it’s perfect.
Caroline Kosharian on 2026-03-29 (5 stars): Followed recipe exactly and they were delicious. Perfect amount of shortbread and so lemony. It’s a very quick and easy dessert to make. 😋
sam on 2026-03-27 (5 stars): delicious
Lulu on 2026-03-16 (5 stars): Absolutely lovely and SO EASY to put together! When I have made these before using different recipes, you have to make the curd, but this goes on as a mixture and it works! Thankyou Nagi! I will definitely make these again.
Ian on 2026-02-25 (4 stars): Somehow I ended up with upside-down lemon curd bars. The lemon all sank to the bottom.
I followed the directions and poured the curd immediately on to the hot base, straight out of the oven.
They're a bit down on presentation, but tasty-as!
KimK on 2026-02-15 (5 stars): Absolutely amazing and so easy to make. Made these for Valentine’s Day along with homemade vanilla ice cream. I just wish I had a heart shaped cookie cutter.
grant on 2026-02-03 (4 stars): Looking for some new/old items for the local school's stall at the monthly market, I tried the Lemon Bar.
Very tasty, and the folks at work loved them. Is there a way to cut the bars evenly? I used a pizza wheel after seeing the baking paper "lifted" the curd top in places.
Definitely doing again, 16 squares too small
Arlene Reid on 2025-12-15 (5 stars): Absolutely fantastic. Very easy to make and turned out exactly as described. I used the cornflour as I couldn’t source rice flour at short notice.
My husband said that they couldn’t have been any better.
Many thanks for the recipe - I will be making these on a regular basis.
Sue on 2025-12-07 (5 stars): *Warning* Very, VERY moreish! I cut them into 10 bars because 16 squares looked a bit small to me. It's light and I had to stop myself from eating half the batch & hubby also commented the same thing. I added an extra tablespoon of zest for extra lemon flavour & reduced the sugar to 3/4 after reading through the comments. I also used a 20cm ceramic square dish so the crust and filling both needed an extra 4-5 minutes cooking time.
Michele de Souza on 2025-12-06 (5 stars): The best lemon squares I have ever tasted.
Charlotte on 2025-11-22 (5 stars): Amazing recipe love it most my family use it
Steve Watt on 2025-11-19 (5 stars): Great recipe Nagi, simple as easy to follow
Rebekah on 2025-10-28 (5 stars): 10/10 literally everything I want out of a lemon slice!!! Perfect for novice bakers too
Dot on 2025-10-24 (5 stars): So lemony, so yummy, so easy! Everybody raved. Will be added to the list (along with RTE Lemonade Scones).
Holly on 2025-10-14 (5 stars): I have been following a different recipe for lemon bars for quite some time now and I always find the shortbread is soft/soggy the next day. I have tried Nagi’s recipe and oh my days, it’s amazing! The cornflour really makes a difference. This is officially my go-to recipe for lemon bars. In Nagi we trust!
