Easy creamy lemon bars are my newest bite size dessert creation and they are so good! These lemon bars with a graham cracker crust pack a lot of flavor and are the perfect dessert for any season or occasion.
The idea for these bars came from my love for bite sized desserts. I find I just need a little nibble of something sweet sometimes and I don’t want to go through the whole formal process of using a plate and fork 🙂
I also really needed another bite sized dessert idea since I was always making my mini cheesecake bites. I love these so much but I also don’t want to get tired of them by always making them.
If someone wants more than one bar, they can just grab some more! It is great for all the varying types of desesrt eaters out there.
The ingredients and steps to make these lemon bars are very simple. If you have 30 minutes, you can make these. They will however need a few hours in the refrigerator to set up.
The waiting is the hard part but this makes it the perfect dessert for entertaining because it can be made ahead of time, even the day before.
Here are the ingredients to make these creamy lemon bars:
- Lemons
- Eggs (only the yolks)
- Condensed Milk
- Graham Cracker Crust (graham crackers, sugar, butter)
That is it! Really simple you all. You may already have most of these items in your fridge and pantry already.
If you have made key lime pie before, this is what inspired this recipe. It is the same simple ingredients but it’s made with lemon instead of key limes and it is made into bars instead of a pie shape. I know many lemon desserts have you make a lemon curd but why go through all of that hassle when you can make these 🙂
In addition to these bars being made with simple ingredients (3 ingredients if you don’t include the graham cracker crust), the steps to making these creamy lemon bars are so easy. I promise you anyone can make these.
Here are what the steps look like to make these lemon bars:
Prepare your baking dish by adding parchment paper to help the bars release after baking. Grind up your graham crackers. Add sugar and butter to ground up graham crackers and set aside.. Mix together condensed milk, eggs and lemon Press graham crackers into pan and pre-bake for 5 minutes. Then add lemon mixture and bake for another 15 minutes.
Honestly, the most difficult part is waiting. I do suggest not skipping the parchment paper step because this allows you to lift the bars right out of the pan after they are done baking making life much easier.
Now, you could make this into a pie and not bars just by using a pie plate. That is totally up to you. Not everyone wants bars or maybe you wanted to make key lime pie but you only had lemons. Nothing changes for the recipe if you decide to do that.
You could also save your self the step of making the graham cracker crust and buy store bought if that is easier for you. I prefer homemade crust to the store bought so I don’t mind spending a few extra minutes doing this.
For topping off these lemon bars for serving I like to use two things, powdered sugar and fresh whipped cream (store bought works too). If I am having guests, I will add a little lemon zest as well just for a nicer presentation. If it is just me who is eating this I skip that step 🙂
You can use all these toppings or just one or none. The bars are amazing all on their own. Trust me!
I hope you give these simple but delicious creamy lemon bars a try. It is a great dessert for so many occasions and everyone always loves them.
So you like Lemon! Here are more delicious lemon recipes
Easy Creamy Lemon Bars
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 1/3 cup graham crackers
- 5 tbsp melted butter
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Creamy Lemon Filling
- 1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemons about 5-6 lemons
- Whipped cream for serving optional
- powdered sugar for serving optional
Instructions
- Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees
- Prepare an 8×8 baking pan by cutting 2 pieces of parchment paper and overlapping them into a cross shape. Make sure the paper overlaps the sides of the pan a little bit. This will be your handles later when you lift the baked bars out of the pan.
- Place graham crackers into a food processor and blend until it is all crumbs. You will need about 2-3 of the small packages in the box to make 1 1/3 cups of crumbs.
- In a large bowl, add your ground graham crackers, melted butter, salt and sugar and mix well
- Press the crust into you prepared 8×8 baking pan well. It should look pressed and firm and the crust comes up of the sides just a little bit
- Bake your crust for 5 minutes and then remove from the oven to cool while you make your filling.
- In a large bowl, add your sweetened condensed milk (making sure to scrape it all out of the can), lemon juice and egg yolks and mix well until smooth
- Now, pour your mixture into your prepared pie or tart crust
- Bake for 15 minutes
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely
- Once cooled, refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight
- Serve with whipped cream and/or powdered sugar (optional)
- Enjoy!
These were so delicious and so easy! We’ve made them many times now and can’t wait to make it again