Lemon Pie Bars

Goodbye, cakey or chewy lemon squares. These easy lemon pie bars are made with a creamy custard, jam packed with lemon flavor, on a crisp lemon shortbread crust.  The perfect combination of sweet-tart and creamy-crispy.

These aren’t your standard flat, thin lemon squares. 

With lemon squares, there’s a thin shortbread-ish crust, topped with a thin layer of flour-based lemon filling.  The flour (or sometimes cornstarch) helps to set the bars, but it also bakes into an often gummy-ish consistency.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a good lemon dessert.  Lemon is quite possibly my favorite dessert flavor, and I will never turn down a lemon square.

But after finding a jar of my homemade lemon curd in the back of the refrigerator and spreading it on pancakes and waffles and everything in sight for a week or two, I wanted something better.

Something richer and smoother and softer, with more lemon flavor and more creaminess.  I wanted lemon curd, except thick enough to slice in a bar farm.

Then I realized what I really wanted was the creamy lemon pie, which is one of my Top 5 Favorite Recipes Ever.

I wanted more of that lemon pie, and I wanted it in a hand-held bar form.  So that’s exactly what I made — lemon pie bars, instead of classic lemon squares.