Perfect Vegan Lemon Bars (Gluten Free and Sugar Free options)

Bright, refreshing, and perfectly textured, these vegan lemon bars are bursting with lemon flavor and happiness.  Matched with a buttery lemon zest shortbread crust, you will never need another lemon bar recipe again!

Confession time!  Growing up, I never found lemon bars appealing.  They were always the absolute last dessert I’d go for in a buffet spread, never the thing I’d grab at a party, and just in general not a dessert I’d find myself craving.  If this were a Buzzfeed quiz about which dessert to save and which to eliminate, this would always have been my quick “eliminate” answer.

BUT.  But.  That is until I made these vegan lemon bars.  I did it because I figured even if they aren’t MY favorite treat, there are other vegan and gluten free friends out there who need a great recipe for lemon bars, and I don’t want to deprive anyone.  So I started taste testing to make sure I knew what I was doing, and then crafted these.  And I’m not gonna lie, I’ve started craving them.  I still crave chocolate more frequently, but I have started wishing I had a lemon bar after lunch each day. 

The added bit of lemon zest into the shortbread crust gives it an extra pop of flavor, the filling is the perfect texture, and it’s the best ratio of filling to crust there is – a lot more filling than crust, but you can still distinctly taste the buttery shortbread crumbling in your mouth with each bite.  Just writing this makes me want to whip together a batch immediately!

How To Make Them:

These vegan lemon bars are super quick and easy, I love recipes where the instructions are basically “throw all the ingredients into a bowl or pan together and let them do their thing”, and that’s what we have here!  BUT they do require some time at the end to fully firm up – I like to let them sit overnight, but you can get away with 1.5-2 hours if you’re making them same day.  I always like to say this early on so if you are reading this at 6pm and need a dessert to be on a dinner table ready to go in less than an hour, look elsewhere (but, ya know, still on my site) and come back here tomorrow!

There are two parts to this recipe – the crust, and the filling.  Both are supremely easy, but completely different.  I make my bars in an 8×8 pan (I am not great with self-control so I like to not have 9×13 amounts of stuff sitting around tempting me) but if you are using a 9×13 pan just double the amounts of ingredients, all else remains the same.

The crust..

Let’s start with the crust!  This lemon flavored shortbread crust comes together by mixing flour, granulated sugar (see the Ingredients Needed section to learn how to make these sugar free!), salt, and lemon zest with cold vegan butter.  I like to take the butter out of the fridge just before combining everything, then you can use either a pastry cutter, forks, or your hands to combine everything until it resembles soft crumbs. 

Press the crust mixture into a parchment paper lined pan and try to make it as evenly pressed down as possible across the pan.  It’s okay if this isn’t perfect!  Bake the crust on its own for 20 minutes, during which time we will make the filling.

The filling..

The filling is equally as simple as the crust.  You combine the lemon juice (ideally freshly squeezed!  This will take 3-4 lemons), canned coconut milk, lemon zest, granulated sugar (again, see the Ingredients Needed section to learn how to make these sugar free), cornstarch, salt, and turmeric in a small pot or saucepan.  Whisk everything together until combined, then let it warm up on medium heat until it thickens.  Keep stirring with a spoon while it comes together.  This will take about 5 minutes, and it will be magical.  For the first few minutes it will just be off-white liquid with some yellow specks from the zest, bubbling a bit as it gets warm.  Then suddenly, POOF, it is a thick yellow gel!

(The photos of this part of the process are tragic because I was making the bars at night and my kitchen without natural light photographs like a dungeon. But hopefully you can follow along if you need visual reference, and of course ask any questions in the comments)

Time to bake!

Once you’ve got your magical lemon filling gel, pour it into the pan with the pre-baked crust, and use a spatula to smooth it around as evenly as possible.  Again, making things smooth and even is not my strong-suit, so just do the best you can.  Put the whole thing into the oven for another 15 minutes, and then let it cool fully to room temperature before moving into the fridge.  Like I said earlier, 1.5-2 hours should be enough time to set it, but for a really perfect bar, let them come together in the fridge overnight. 

Note – if you are using the photos, you will see that I use binder clips to keep the parchment paper in place on my 8×8 pan. I remove these before putting the pan into the oven.

Once they are ready I suggest sifting a little powdered sugar over the top, then cut into either 9 or 16 equal squares. And that’s it! Time to eat your perfect vegan lemon bars!!

Nutritional info can be found in the Notes section below the recipe instructions.

Storage:

Store in the fridge, they will stay good for 5-7 days.

Pro Tips & Tools:

• Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method.  Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
• Make sure you measure your liquid ingredients using liquid measuring cups.  This will ensure accuracy!  I love this set.
• Be a lemon master! Get the finest zest using this microplane, and get the most juice out of them using this juicer.

Ingredients Needed:

• Flour – Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method.  Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
• Granulated sugar – needed for the crust and the filling. If you want to make these sugar free, I love using this Monkfruit Sweetener in place of granulated sugar.
• Salt
• Vegan butter – I use the Earth Balance sticks, which makes it extra easy in this recipe because it’s just one stick
• Lemon juice & zest – I use 4 lemons to get the zest and juice needed for this recipe
• Coconut milk – the good canned kind, not the type in the fridge section of the grocery store! This one is my go-to, but you can use any similar ones.
• Cornstarch
• Turmeric – this is just to add a bright yellow color, I promise it won’t affect the flavor at all!  
• Powdered sugar – optional, to dust over the top. If you want this part to be sugar free, you can use this Monkfruit Powdered Sweetener in place of powdered sugar.

What To Bake Next:

• Want more lemon treats? Try these Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Muffins, or this Vegan Lemon Pound Cake.
• Want more use out of your 8×8 pan? Try these Vegan Pecan Pie Bars, or this Vegan Coffee Cake, or these Vegan Fudgy Brownies.
• Want more fruit based recipes? Try these Vegan Raspberry Crumble Bars, or these Vegan Banana Pancakes, or these Vegan Banana Bread Cookies. Or go big and try these Vegan Cheesecake Brownies with Strawberry Sauce.