The lemons that come to us in the summer are yellow and plump with juice.  I love to squeeze them into iced tea to sip on a hot day.  I was inspired to make a lemon dessert again because of the lure of the lemon’s bright flavor.  This time, the craving was for a lemon bar. Lemon bars are easy enough if you can eat gluten.  There are recipes with flour crust, graham cracker crust or a shortbread crust.  Not so much when you have to eat gluten free.  Because there are so many combinations of gluten free flour a baker can mix together, getting the taste to not be dominated by one particular flour or texture is really hard. So in order to embark on this making adventure, I had to sift, if you will pardon the pun, through hundreds of recipes on line and in cook books so I could find what would be the best tasting base.  I opted for shortbread.  Here’s how I did it… Shortbread Crust: 1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter room temperature 1/4 cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (powdered or icing) sugar 1 cup (130 grams) all purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon salt Lemon Filling: 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar 2 large eggs 1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemons (approximately two large lemons) 1 tablespoons (5 grams) grated lemon zest 2 tablespoons (25 grams) all purpose flour This was a recipe I found on the Joy Of Baking.com.  It also had a video attached so you can do it just right.

The lemons that come to us in the summer are yellow and plump with juice.  I love to squeeze them into iced tea to sip on a hot day.  I was inspired to make a lemon dessert again because of the lure of the lemon’s bright flavor.  This time, the craving was for a lemon bar.

Lemon bars are easy enough if you can eat gluten.  There are recipes with flour crust, graham cracker crust or a shortbread crust.  Not so much when you have to eat gluten free.  Because there are so many combinations of gluten free flour a baker can mix together, getting the taste to not be dominated by one particular flour or texture is really hard.

So in order to embark on this making adventure, I had to sift, if you will pardon the pun, through hundreds of recipes on line and in cook books so I could find what would be the best tasting base.  I opted for shortbread.  Here’s how I did it…

Shortbread Crust:

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter room temperature

1/4 cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (powdered or icing) sugar

1 cup (130 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Lemon Filling:

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemons (approximately two large lemons)

1 tablespoons (5 grams) grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons (25 grams) all purpose flour


This was a recipe I found on the Joy Of Baking.com.  It also had a video attached so you can do it just right.