Easy Creamy Lemon Bars

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Are you looking to make some delicious easy creamy lemon bars? Look no further, my friends! These bars are the bomb!

They might remind you of the key lime pie preparation style and you are not mistaken. This recipe is made with condensed milk and it is creamy and heavenly delicious.

Very lemony and sweet enough to calm down a sweet tooth, these bars are easy to make and perfect for a party, a potluck or just because you want to bake something awesome.

This recipe comes from my new friend Cristina, who sent me this recipe by email recently. She made the recipe for a party where she was in charge to bring some dessert. 

Cristina lives in Spain and loves to bake. She was so sweet to send me a bunch of recipes that I am super excited to try. 

The lemon bars are made in a square pan so you can cut them in small servings, which takes away the guilt of eating too much.

When life gives you lemons, there is so much more you can do than just making lemonade!

There is lemon cake, lemon cookies, lemon curd, lemon pie, lemon chicken and also lemon bread.

The possibilities are endless and all delicious.

How To make these easy creamy lemon bars:

The perfect lemon bar recipe needs only two things to be delicious: the right amount of lemon and the right amount of butter in the crust. 

Too little lemon and the bars are boring, too much lemon and they become inedible. The nice part about this recipe is that you can substitute lemons with limes, key limes or any other favorite citrus.

Now, you are aware that if you change the recipe and start replacing ingredients, the taste will be different, right? 

For example, if you add orange juice instead of lemon (because you want the recipe, but you forgot to buy lemons when you went shopping), the bars will be sweater with less zing, as oranges have more sugar.

They are not the same, even if they are all called citrus, so keep that in mind if you start experimenting. (I am looking at you, the ones who usually do not follow instructions and start messing with the recipes!) 🙂

The Crust:

Using a food processor, the process is fast, as you just put the graham crackers and the butter in the food processor and pulse a few times to obtain a wet sandy mixture.

Note: If you feel some frustration because you don’t have a food processor, which I really encourage you to buy (is a truly life saver in the kitchen), then grab a sturdy plastic bag and place the crackers inside.

Seal the bag and grab that rolling pin. (You know, the one that you were wondering what is doing in your kitchen, as you never used it before.)  

Smack the life out of the crackers until you have fine crumbs. 

Put the crumbs in a bowl, add melted butter and mix well with a spoon until you have a wet sandy mess. Then, continue with the recipe.

Press the crumbs into the pan and bake for about 10 minutes. Let the crust cool, but leave the oven on. We are going to bake the dessert again.

In the meantime, make the filling.

This is a chemistry experiment that is fun to do. The recipe is made with egg yolks mixed with lemon juice and condensed milk.

This is actually the base for key lime pie. It could be that the inspiration for this recipe comes from the way the pie is made.

When you mix these three ingredients together, a chemical reaction happens between the protein in the egg yolks, condensed milk and the acidic lemon juice that allows the mixture to become thicker on its own.

In the past, the recipes that use this combination of ingredients did not require baking.

However, today, we all know that consuming raw eggs can be dangerous, so desserts of this nature are usually baked for a short time, enough to make the eggs safe to eat.

The baking also thickens the dessert a little bit more, which makes it better for transportation.

So, to make the filling, we start separating the eggs. The recipe for the filling requires egg yolks that we will mix with the lemon zest.

A hand mixer would be good, because the speed helps to thicken the filling.

Pour the condensed milk in a steady stream mixing constantly.

I used this awesome tool for squeezing lemons, that actually works for different citrus fruits size.

Squeeze the lemons, then add the juice and mix again. You will notice that the filling is getting thicker by the minute.

Pour the filling over the crust and return the pan to the oven to bake for another 12-15 minutes.

I am saying 12-15 minutes, because it all depends on how sturdy that filling you want it to be.

I baked it for 15 minutes and liked the texture. If you bake it less it is going to be softer, which might not be ideal when you try to cut it, but I saw some recipes saying that the filling should be slightly set.  Your choice.

It will set a little bit more when you refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

Before you do that, beat some heavy cream with a little bit of sugar and spread it over the lemon filling. Decorate with lemon peel, or thin slices of lemon. 

Serve cold.

To use up the egg whites, try this delicious classic European chocolate ganache meringue torte.

Here are other recipes of Lemon Bars: 

Coconut-Almond Lemon Bars Recipe

Super Easy Lemon Bars

Lemon Ricotta Cheese Cake

Cheesecake squares with crunchy pecans