This easy Lemon Squares Recipe comes together in minutes. When you are craving a fresh and vibrant dessert my healthy lemon bars will be a perfect fix.
Low Carb, Keto, Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, THM S
I love when readers send me recipes to test. Last month I received this dough recipe from John in my email and I was intrigued by the use of milk powder. I gave it a try subbing in the heavy cream powder I had in my cupboard. It was a great dough! Very easy to work with and easier to make than a fathead type dough. It reminded me of the cream cheese dough I use in my pecan cup cookies.
Add in my current craving for light and refreshing spring flavors and this recipe for lemon squares was born. I served these to friends a couple of days after making them and everyone loved them.
How to Make Crust for Lemon Bars
This cream cheese based crust mixes up in no time. Just add the ingredients to your stand mixer and turn it on. If you don’t have a stand mixer you can mix this by hand or with an electric mixer.
This dough is unique in its use of heavy cream powder or whole milk powder. This makes the crust softer and enhances the flavor. If you’d prefer a crust without heavy cream powder try my Easy Low Carb Pie Crust or the crust in my Pecan Cup Cookies recipe.
Ingredients in Lemon Squares Crust:
- Almond Flour – I’ve really come to prefer almond flour in baked goods. It gives a tender crumb in cakes, cookies, and biscuits.
- Heavy Cream Powder
- Coconut Flour – Just a little bit of coconut flour goes a long way. Coconut flour helps to balance the oiliness of almond flour since it is naturally drier and absorbs more liquid than other alternative flours.
- Sugar-Free Sweetener – I like to use a blend of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia in my recipes. You can purchase this pre-mixed from the Trim Healthy Mama website or mix your own according to my recipe. By using a combination of sugar alcohols and stevia you can use half the amount required of regular sugar. Since these sweeteners can be more expensive this helps with my food budget.
- Cream Cheese
- Eggs
How to Make Filling for Lemon Squares
The filling for my lemon squares recipe is made easily either by hand or in your stand mixer. You just want to mix the ingredients until they are smooth. As long as you are using softened cream cheese and melted butter the filling comes together quickly.
Ingredients in Healthy Lemon Bars Filling:
- Sugar-Free Sweetener
- Butter
- Heavy Cream
- Eggs
- Cream Cheese
- Lemon Juice
Can I use bottled lemon juice for lemon squares?
I don’t remember using bottled lemon juice for a dessert when lemon is the star flavor. The flavor just isn’t as vibrant and squeezing fresh lemons.
I love cookies but a lot of the time it’s easier to just press a batter into an 8×8 baking dish. I default to bars and brownies over scooping individual cookies quite often. Here are some of my favorite bar recipes.
Keto Dessert Bar Recipes:
Keto Chocolate Cake Bars with Cheesecake Swirl
Peppermint Cookies and Cream Bars
Tagalong Peanut Butter Cookie Bars
White Chocolate Peanut Butter Blondies
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Ingredients
- 3 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup heavy cream powder (or whole milk powder)
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or my sweetener
- 1/4 tsp salt
Filling:
- 1 cup Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or my sweetener, finely ground
- 6 tbsp butter softened
- 1/4 cup cream light or heavy
- 3 eggs
- 2 oz cream cheese softened
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- zest of one lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 baking pan lined with parchment paper.
- Beat softened cream cheese with paddle attachment in a stand mixer, scrape the bowl and then add the remaining ingredients.
- Add remaining ingredients into the mixer and mix all together. Mix until mixture leaves sides of the bowl. It is a very soft and delicate dough.
- Press into the bottom of the 8x8 baking dish. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.
- Mix together the ingredients for the filling in the stand mixer until smooth. Pour over the pre-baked crust.
- Bake for 30-35 min or until the filling no longer jiggles if the pan is gently shaken. Cool completely. Gently lift the parchment paper to remove the bars from the pan. Cut into 12 pieces. Sprinkle with powdered sweetener right before serving if desired.
Notes
To sub in Swerve use 1.5 to 2 times the amount of sweetener called for.
