The original recipe for these lemon bars were a request from my fabulous aunt when she was down visiting Austin several years back. She had mentioned that she loves to bake and was asking for some suggestions on lighter treats that were easy to pull together when having dinner with friends or family.
Naturally I suggested Skinny Cherry Pie Bars and soon mentioned that I wanted to work on a lemon bar recipe next. She sweetly encouraged me to work on them sooner than later. Fast-forward years down the line and here we are with an updated version of these Skinny Lemon Bars!
I searched through many lemon bar recipes and found one that was by far the highest rated and started out with some of the simplest of ingredients.
I'll be honest, when I began trying to lighten this recipe up years ago, I had more than one flub-up. This time around, I was a lot more knowledgable and the process was simple and actually fairly easy to do! Pre-baking the crust is essential, but there’s no need to cook the lemon on the stove top before hand. Not with this recipe!
By the way, you can absolutely sub out all of the regular sugar in this recipe for natural sweetener to make these even more diet friendly and lower in sugar!
I have found that my personal preference, when using natural sweeteners to sub for sugar, is to also use a bit of regular sugar to further fool my tastebuds into believing the fallacy.
TheSkinnyFork.com - Originally Posted 4/26/13 Lightened up homemade lemon bars from scratch with just a few ingredients. Most of which you already likely have on hand! A little sweet. A little sour. Completely delish! Prep Time: 10 Minutes • Cook Time: 36 Minutes
Servings: 9 • Serving Size: 1 Square • Calories: 236 • Fat: 12 g • Saturated Fat: 7 g • Carb: 42 g • Fiber: 1 g • Protein: 4 g • Sugar: 15 g • Sodium: 92 mg
Crust:
• 1/2 C. Butter, Melted
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Natural Sweetener
• 1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 Tsp. Salt
• 1 C. Whole Wheat White Flour
• Zest of 1 Lemon
Filling:
• 1/2 C. Sugar
• 1/2 C. Natural Sweetener
• 3 Tbsp. Flour
• 3 Whole Large Eggs
• 1/2 C. Fresh Lemon Juice
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. and line ax 8x8” or 9x9” baking dish with parchment paper and give it all a light coat of non-stick baking sprat; set aside.
Mix together the 1/2 C. melted butter, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 2 Tbsp. sweetener, 1 Tsp. vanilla, and 1/4 Tsp. salt together in a medium bowl.
Add in the 1 C. flour and lemon zest. and stir well to combine.
Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
Place the dish into the oven to bake for about 20 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to brown.
Remove from the oven and set aside.
Sift together the 1/2 C. sugar, 1/2 C. sweetener and 3 Tbsp. flour into a medium bowl.
Whisk in the 3 eggs and 1/2 C. lemon juice.
Pour the lemon mixture out over the warm crust and place the dish back into the oven to bake for about 16 minutes or until the center of the lemon curd is set and no longer jiggly.
Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
You can also place these in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight.
When good and chilled, carefully remove from the dish by way of the parchment paper.
Cut into 9 equal pieces and enjoy!
Cover and store leftovers in the fridge for up to one week.
Step-by-Step Photos:
Nutritional Claims: Low Sodium • Low Potassium • Kidney Friendly •Vegetarian • Pescatarian • Peanut Free • Tree Nut Free • Soy Free • Fish Free • Shellfish Free • Pork Free • Red Meat Free • Crustacean Free • Celery Free • Mustard Free • Sesame Free • Lupine Free • Mollusk Free • Alcohol Free • Kosher
