Not to long ago I got the chance to use key limes for the first time and I used them to make a key lime pie . This weekend I stumbled across meyer lemons for the first time and I grabbed some right away. I had been hearing about meyer lemons for a long time and I had been wanting to try them. A meyer lemon is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange which sounded like a great combination. I really like using lemons in desserts and one of my favorites is the simple lemon bar. A lemon bar is a bar with a shortbread crust and a layer of lemon custard topped with icing sugar. I was thinking that meyer lemon bars be would be the perfect place to start enjoying my meyer lemons. I used a pretty standard recipe for the lemon bars that I found of Joy of Baking and I just substituted the lemon juice and zest for meyer lemon juice and zest. They meyer lemon bars were nice and simple to make though I did run into one small snag; I had some trouble getting the bars out of the baking pan. No worries though, the crumbled lemon bars were still great! I really enjoyed the meyer lemon bars and the meyer lemon flavour was a nice change from ordinary lemons. I am still surprised that something so naturally tart as a lemon can become so magically good in sweet dessert like this. The next time I make these lemon bars I think I might double the recipe for the lemon filling to get even more lemony goodness in each bite. For now, I still have a few meyer lemon left to enjoy.
Meyer Lemon Bars
ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- confectioners sugar
directions
- Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl.
- Mix in the flour and salt until it comes together.
- Press it down into a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
- Bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
- Beat the eggs and sugar until smooth.
- Mix in the lemon juice and zest.
- Mix in the flour.
- Pour the mixture onto the crust.
- Bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until set, about 20 minutes.
- Let cool and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
Lemon Bars is one of my most favorite things to make in the summer, they are so easy, flaky, light and have such a bright and refreshing lemon taste. I have never used the Meyer lemon, does it have a different taste?
i have never met a lemon bar I didn’t like, and yours looks like no exception!
Hmmmm I like the even dusting of icing sugar on the bars! Somehow it feels like Christmas!
Wow. That looks good. I never knew what Meyer lemons were until recently. I’ve never seen Meyer lemons in Ottawa (at least where I’ve been) but I’ll be sure to try this recipe if I find some.
Perfect treat for spring!! 🙂
This was a childhood favorite of mine…and meyers were in our backyard! YUM
Where did you find the meyer lemons?
I’ve seen a lot of lemon floating around recently and these look fabo!
NAOmni
I LUUUUUUV Meyer Lemon!!!
Now I need to make lemon bars! I’ve been holding back because I can’t decide which recipe to use.
They look so light and tasty – I can’t wait for spring!
There is NOTHING like a Meyer lemon. Yum! Thanks!
mmmm. i love lemon bars! these look yummy 🙂
Must be lemon bar day-I have some over on my place too!
Nice sugary top. Powdered sugar makes everything better 🙂
I have been readingabout them also. There are not any to be found here!! I so adorre lemon bars and would love to taste with these famous Meyers.
I love your picture, I have yet to try lemon bars.
I made a salad dressing last night from the juice of three meyer lemons, about 3 times the amount of juice in extra virgin olive oil, some basil and salt and pepper.
My friends liked it, so it seems to have been a good choice. 🙂
verygoodyear: If you live in the west end of Toronto, there’s a store on Roncesvalles that tends to have them in stock often – I think it’s “KO” or something – they have organic produce there.
Your lemon bar looks delicious. I also baked up a batch of lemon bars a few days ago. With a whopping 1 c. of lemon juice and a couple of heaping tablespoons of lemon zest, they were the pucker-iest lemon bars I had ever tasted!I bet with the Meyer lemons you get a sweeter, mellower zing, right?
Lemon taste is my fav..looks simple and yummy..
If I were to be stranded on an island but also given the chance to bring seasonings, I stretch the definition of seasoning and bring a lemon.
I’ve adored lemon bars ever since my aunt started making them when I was a kid. I never get tired of them! I’ll bet the Meyer lemons make them even more delicious!
I’m a sucker for lemon bars. I have never used Meyer lemons before…haven’t really seen them around the market either. Your bars look yummy!
Perfect season for lemon bar Kevin. That really look delicious.
Cheers,
elra
I line my baking pan with parchment paper so I can lift up the entire “lemon bar” out to the cutting board for cutting.
This is one of my favorite bars/desserts! A pity I can’t find Meyer lemons here…
Cheers,
Rosa
love seeing all these citrus recipes at the moment! i made lime bars a while back and they were great. unfortunately i do not find meyer lemons so often here – but have to try this with my organic lemons!
Yummy! I had never heard of meyer lemons until I started on the food blogging scene, but they are so good in things like this. I have a friend who always pops her pan into the freezer for a few minutes before cutting her lemon bars, and swears it helps her get a cleaner cut. Not sure if it works, but she insists it does.
Looks gorgeous. I’ve made lemon bar before and i also have hard time cutting it to nice shape without breaking it.
Must get my hands on some of htese lemons–every one has a post on them and I have everytinhg I need to make great reicpes…except the lemons.
Ooh lovely .. I must get my hands on some meyer lemons before the season is over!
verygoodyear: I found the meyer lemons at a grocer in the St. Lawrence market.
Happy that spring is coming, as to me it means delicious lemon desserts like this one.
Kevin my mouth is watering I love anything lemon. They look great as usual.
Your beautiful photo makes me want to rush out and buy meyer lemons.
Looks delicious! I love experimenting with a lemon bar recipe and trying different juices. Meyer lemons are great!
My toungs istinkling just seeing the pic, beautiful and delicious.
Kevin you have just hit my weak spot of all bakes!! Lemon bars rank 1st in my top bakes!! I wish I could find Meyer Lemons too,and I have never tried them before.
Brilliant bake – bookmarked for sure!
I’ve always wanted to try Meyer lemons.
These look so good. I love meyer lemon. I used to not really like lemon sweets all that much, but I love them now.
Mmmm. I love meyer lemons and I really love lemon bars so you can imagine how much I would dig these bars – they look great Kevin.
Those look tasty. I’ll have to try them
Lemon treats are up there on my yum list! Yours look fantastic!
Dear Kevin, I just gave you an award!! Please pick it up at http://www.sophiesfoodiefiles.blogspot.com!!! Why? Read why in my latest post: my second award!!! Bravo!!
Um, please pass an entire tray of these my way! Perfect treat for Springtime! YUM!
So on a bought of boredom, I went and looked at what you made when you first started. A lot of them still look good, but I was blown away by how much you photography/equipment has improved. That makes me feel a lot better about my own because I hope to improve…
NAOmni
I love lemon bars but have never used meyer lemons in anything. I have heard so much about them and will have to checka the grocery store for them. Your look delish!!!
with the weather warming up here, i think this is one of the things to have .. refreshing.
Yum! I love lemon bars. Really , I love citrus in general, but after lime Meyer Lemon is what I crave.
I used to make these and take them to work. The men inhaled them! They’re delicious 🙂
I make these at Christmas time. One of my favorite cookies.
Dazzling Kevin ~ they look divine!
(I’m so happy you were able to get Meyer Lemons.)
Great photo, too ~~ wish I could reach through the monitor… 🙂
Lemon bars are really great, but there is the occasionally too tart bar. Meyers sound like that perfect blend of sweet and sour. We gotta get some!
This is one of those desserts I’ve been meaning to try for the longest time, but never have. They sound great and I love the color!
I love lemons, and Meyer lemons are the best. They rock the citrus world. These bars look delicious!
This is one of my favorite summer desserts!
I love lemon desserts. Lemon merengue pie is one of my favourites. How many meyer lemons were necessary to make 1/3 cup juice?
OMG! I love lemon bars!! I think I may have to crack and make a batch of these… they look so good!
I really don’t care for Meyer lemons even though I have a tree that produces boatloads of them.
That said, this recipe is making me think I’ll give them one more go. Looks terrific.
Kimberlita: It took about 4 meyer lemons for me. The meyer lemons that I got were smaller than normal lemons.
When I can’t get Meyer lemons but want to bake a lemon dessert, I mix some orange with the lemons.
This looks perfect for summer!
They look delicious Kevin!
I wish I have access to meyer lemons in Singapore, they look so fresh and tasty 😛
I love lemon bars and yours look great. I actually had a dwarf meyer lemon tree and sadly, some pests got to it and I had to throw it away. 🙁
That looks sooo good! I saw that lemons were on sale this week, I may need to get a few. 😉
Those look soooo good. Normally I shun any kind of bar or baked good that doesn’t contain chocolate, but your pictures make me think I may need to reconsider the lemon bar…
Now this is a fantastic dessert! I love the flavor of a Meyer lemon.
My Grams loves lemon bars, they are about the only thing she can make anymore for family dinners. Thanks for the post and the recipe sounds great!
Oh Kevin, those just look astonoshingly good! We don’t often get Meyer lemons here in the UK, but the one taste of Mayer lemon curd that I’ve had has hooked me…
What a coincidence, like you, i stumble upon meyer lemons and it was on sale $1 for a bag of 8. I was thinking of making a dessert out of it and this looks good. I do have a recipe for lemon bars but i’ll give yours a try. Thanks!
I have never had Meyer lemons either, but the lemon/orange mix sounds nice. I love all things lemony so I’d certainly take a piece of this cake, if you would be so kind as to pass me a plate.
Hi, Kevin! Just wanted you to know that i made the meyer lemon bars. It was a hit both in my family and at work. I did made some adjustments w/ the sugar coz i found it sweet on my first batch so i cut down a little bit on the sugar on my second batch and i added some candied lemon slices for garnish. Pls check my blog http://bisayajudkaayo.blogspot.com/2009/03/meyer-lemon-bars-with-candied-meyer.html.
Thanks for the recipe!
Just used your recipe. A co-worker gave me a bunch of meyer lemons from his tree, and this was just the right thing to do with them. The bars came out great. I put a little vanilla and zest in the shortbread. Yum. Next time I am thinking of trying some lavender.
Thanks so much for posting this recipe!
Normally I’m a cook and not a baker and if I do bake, it’s usually something chocolate-y, but I too discovered Meyer lemons at the grocery store and knew I had to try them in your recipe.
I’ve never made lemon bars before, and somehow the crust ended up floating on top of the Meyer lemon curd so they resembled upside-down lemon bars.
Is this because I didn’t let the crust cool long enough before pouring the curd in, so that the curd just seeped underneath the crust? Do you cool your crust first before baking again?
had to laugh, i didn’t realize TaGa_LuTo was a follower also, we’re good friends on myspace!
These look excellent!
I tried this recipe. So easy, with so few ingredients! Turned out great! Thanks!
I just made this recipe the other day & they are really good. Thank you for posting these.
I found Meyer lemons at Trader Joe's and made these yesterday. First time baking anything and… turned out really awesome. I lined my pan with parchment paper and it was easy to take it out of the pan. One comment: next time I need to double up on the recipe. Yummy yummy!
I love lemons and anything made with lemons. If I'm lucky enough and my timing is right, I've found some Mayer Lemons at Costco and make my lemon bars, lemon pound cakes and lemon curds and anything else lemon with them. I personally prefer Mayer Lemons over regular lemons, I find they taste more lemony( if that's a word). I can't wait to make this recipe.
Sounds yummy, Kevin. I wonder if lining the pan with parchment paper might be helpful in removing the bars.
Just made these….soooo yummy!