I am keen to try and create as many lemon recipes here as possible – so this is one I have wanted to try for a while! 

I have seen lots of variations of recipes called Lemon Bars – this one was the easiest of the lot so a great place to start. Using sweetened condensed milk for the topping was a lovely easy combination too. I love my recipes to be full of lemon flavour, so I have altered the recipe slightly from the original to make it even more lemony!

As with many of my kitchen experiences I had a few mistakes – firstly when I sliced my lemons they were kinda weird – all skin, and half empty and sort of dried up so I sent off my long suffering husband to buy me some gorgeous big Gisborne lemons which were perfect. The next boo boo came when I added a “drop” of yellow gel food colouring – I accidentally added about 5 drops – and I ended up with a very vibrant yellow topping! So don’t do I what I did – be better than me 😉

The consistency of the topping is pudding like, if I made these again I would definitely add some lemon zest to the base as I think this would give a nice hit of lemon! If you love things extra lemony you can always add more zest to both the base and the topping! They really are melt in the mouth.

If you do not add yellow food colouring they will be a very pale beige colour so much more appealing to add a little colour – perhaps not as much as me though or you may end up with a rather interesting looking slice. I have adapted this recipe from verybestbaking.com and they have some lovely recipes over there!

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Lemon Bars

Yield: 20

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 minute

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Ingredients

Base

• 2 Cups Plain White Flour
• 1/2 Cup Icing Sugar
• 225 grams Butter, Room Temperature
• 1-2 Tablespoons Lemon Zest (optional)

Topping

• 1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk (395g)
• 4 Eggs
• 2/3 Cup Lemon Juice (Approx 4 large lemons)
• 1 Tablespoon Plain White Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 2-4 drops Yellow Food Colouring (optional) less if using gel colours
• 2 Tablespoons Grated Lemon Zest

To Serve

• Icing Sugar for dusting

Instructions

Preheat Oven to 175 C (350F)

Prepare Slice or Cake Tin (23-25cm) with baking paper and set aside

I used my food processor for this next step - or you can cut the butter in with knives.

Combine the flour, icing sugar, butter and lemon zest and mix only until crumbs form.

Press the crumbs into the prepared tin until level and bake for 20 minutes.

While that is cooking prepare the topping, in a food mixer or a large bowl whisk together the condensed milk and eggs until light and fluffy

Add the lemon juice, flour, baking powder, salt, and few drops of food colouring and combine well, add more food colouring if needed for colour, and gently fold in the lemon zest.

Pour the topping over the par cooked base and return to the oven for a further 20-25 minutes, once the topping has set firm it is done.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool before Refrigerating for 2 hours to allow slice to fully set.

Remove from the refrigerator and slice and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Did you make this recipe?

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 I am looking forward to experimenting with more variations on these lemon bars and think they would be beautiful with a meringue topping too so watch this space! It is lovely to hear when you have tried my recipes so comment below to let me know what you think.

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Happy Baking! Anna 🙂