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Enjoy the tangy, sweetness of homemade lemon curd sandwiched between buttery crumbles with these Lemon Crumble Bars.
I’m slightly obsessed with lemon. And these bars are bursting with lemon flavor. The lemon curd in the middle is creamy and tart. Which is the perfect complement to the buttery crumble that is used to sandwich it in. Just thinking about these lemon crumble bars is making my mouth start to water.
The best part about these bars? They’re simple to make. I made mine with Homemade Lemon Curd. I love making the curd using Meyer Lemons. If you’ve never used Meyer Lemons before then you are definitely missing out. They are the best for baking, they have a slight sweetness to the juice, plus they are just bursting with juice! When juicing lemons it’s best to have them at room temperature, give them a slight roll on the counter to soften them up a bit, and the juice will literally just pour out of these guys.
Lemon Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1½ cup flour
- 1 cup lemon curd
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for about 1 minute until completely melted.
- Remove from the microwave, add the sugars and stir to combine.
- Add in the flour and stir. Mixture will be dry and crumbly. Set aside about 3/4 of a cup of the crust/crumble topping.
- Spoon the remaining crust mixture into a greased 9×9 baking pan. Distribute the crust mixture evenly through the baking pan and press down with a spoon so that it forms the crust.
- Add the cup of lemon curd on top of the crust, and sprinkle the top with the remaining crumble mixture.
- Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for approximately 15-20 minutes. Place into the refrigerator for approximately 1 hour to further set the bars prior to cutting and serving.
- Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container until ready to serve. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
For years these bars have been my go-to treat to take to a gathering. Super easy and always a hit, I’ve made them with various jams and while Ollalieberry was amazing, Meyer lemon is still my fave. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This recipe knocked my socks off! I don’t often leave reviews but felt compelled to leave one for this recipe because there are a few negative reviews and I wanted to balance those out. I was a little nervous before starting because some of the earlier reviews said the crust was hard, the baking time was off or it was too sweet/not sweet enough. I made some changes but overall followed the basic recipe. I used my own tried & true lemon curd recipe. I wanted a fairly tall and substantial bar so I used an 8 x 8 pan instead of 9 x 9. Because my husband loves shortbread style crust and anything with a crumble topping, To maximize the height of the bars, I increased the flour and butter by 1 1/2 (3/4 cup butter & 2 1/4 cups flour) but did not increase the amount of the sugars (it wasn’t too sweet and provided a nice balance to the sweet-tart curd). I also added a pinch of salt to the dough. After mixing the dough I reserved about one cup for the crumble topping. I started checking the bars at 20 minutes and ended up baking them for 35 minutes total, removing them when they were light golden like the picture. They are fantastic and received rave reviews from everyone. I will make this recipe again and again.
Super easy recipe but the base was way too sweet for me. I could only eat one bar and so much sugar didn’t let the lemon stand out. I’d rather have Made these with a shortbread crust (to taste more of he lemon curd) along with this crumble top. I also added some shredded coconut to the top which was good, too!
I made these and they are yummy! A few things I did based on previous reviews:
I did not have meyer lemons, so I just used regular lemons and added more sugar.
I double the recipe and put it in an 8×8 pan- it kinda made the base of these too thick, so I would probably use a bigger pan next time. I did not add the amount of butter called for in the lemon filling- I used just more than half what it called for. It calls for a lot!
Do not over bake! I used a ceramic dish. My crust was hard only because I took it straight out of the fridge to cut. Once the bars got to room temp, they were perfect. Tasty, great bars!
Why not post your own recipe.? This isn’ta review, it’s your recipe!
This is a delicious recipe! Thank you! (After reading other comments I feel I should add that I baked mine in an aluminum pan for exactly 40 minutes, and they turned out perfectly.)
I made these for my family and they also were ROCK HARD!! As in other comments, they looked nothing like the picture and I could not get them out of the pan. I followed the recipe exactly and read and re-read it after it was done to see where I went wrong. I did everything the way the recipe said to. I checked my measuring cups to make sure I sued the right ones. I even put an oven thermometer in my oven to test the temperature. My oven was a little under 350, but not over it. This was quite embarrassing, because I am a good baker and have never had this happen before.
I am so sorry they didn’t turn out! Can I ask what type of dish you were using? Glass, metal, or ceramic?
I’m so sorry you had this experience. I found this recipe years ago and have made it a dozen times with consistent results. I use an 8×8 glass pan and use two long strips of parchment at the bottom to make removal a breeze. I’ve lard the lemon curd recipe provided (I’m making these again today with her curd recipe I canned a couple weeks ago) and I’ve also made these bars using various jams – all excellent, all results consistent. Might be worth another shot.
Were it say just says sugar which sugar is this.ordinary white sugar or granulated?
Regular white sugar 🙂
I made a double recipe using two metal 9×9 pans and it came out wonderfully. I just forwarded your recipe to a Freind who tried my bars yesterday and wants to make them now. The only change I made was that I cut way back on the butter at the end. Instead of mixing in 20 TBPS (double recipe) , I only used about 4 TBSP and mixed together a little cornstarch with cold water into the lemon curd just to ensure it would congeal properly. The bars were a hit! Nice and tart and refreshing. Oh and no hard crust because I checked on it’s color often during baking.
Thanks for sharing . I love lemons too and cooking and baking that doesn’t require a lot of pots.. I baked it for about 30′ because I noticed it started getting burned on the corners.