Lemon bars are such a classic summer dessert, and taste like sunshine! I love the combination of lemon and blueberries, so I wanted to incorporate this into a bar. I made these for a friend’s birthday because her favorite type of dessert is lemon. One of our other friends is vegan, so I made these vegan so everyone at her birthday celebration could enjoy these bars! They were a hit!
I used 4 lemons to make this - 3.5 of them were squeezed for the lemon juice, and then the last half I saved to slice to decorate. I think it would also be great if you sliced it very thinly and placed the slices on top of the bars before baking for extra flavor. To make these nut free, you could substitute wheat flour for the almond flour in approximately a 1:1 ratio (you may need to add slightly more or less for optimal crust consistency). If you aren’t vegan, you can use regular eggs.
Ingredients
Crust:
1.5 cups almond flour
¼ cup coconut flour
¼ cup maple syrup
⅓ cup almond butter (or can sub coconut oil, melted and cooled)
1 tsp vanilla
Small splash of almond extract (optional)
Sprinkle of salt
Filling:
2 vegan eggs, prepared as directed (I used this kind), or sub 2 eggs
3 tbsp coconut cream (scrape it off the top of a can of coconut cream)
¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ cup maple syrup
1.5 tsp lemon zest
Splash of vanilla
Dash of turmeric (optional)
About ¼ cup blueberries (optional)
Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 F, and line a baking dish with parchment paper (I used a rectangular pan of unknown exact dimensions that was between 8 in x 8 in and 9 in x 13 in).
2. Mix the crust ingredients in a bowl until you have an even mixture. It will be slightly crumbly and sticky, but should hold together well.
3. Spread the crust in the baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes - it will become golden brown on the edges.
4. While the crust is baking, whisk together the filling ingredients, adding the blueberries last once everything else is evenly mixed.
Note: When the lemon juice is added to the egg, the mixture will foam and audibly "sizzle" - don’t worry! It freaked me out and made me worry that my recipe wouldn’t work, but it ended up being fine and delicious! Make sure to whisk the filling until lumps are gone or minimal. If you are using the egg replacer that I did, there will likely be some lumps remaining, which is fine; you won’t be able to tell once the bars are baked. You can take out the larger lumps if you wish.
5. Take the crust out of the oven and pour the filling on top. If the crust has risen and is a bit puffy, gently press it down with a large spoon before adding the filling.
6. Place the bars back in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. The filling will start to bubble and look caramelized and golden brown, and once the filling is set, they are done! To check this, hold the pan with oven mitts and gently agitate it - it should be pretty stable and solid, although it may wiggle a bit.
7. Let the bars cool at room temperature for 30-45 minutes (until the pan is cool), then cover and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours to completely set the bars.
8. Sprinkle some finely shredded coconut on top, slice, and enjoy!
Comments