Cream Cheese Lemon Bars
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Cream Cheese Lemon Bars are the dessert you never knew you needed, but bake them once, and you’ll never go without them again. Sweet, cream cheesy, lemony, buttery, and so easy!
For more quick desserts, try my recipes for Apple Slab Pie, Easy Lemon Tart, Salted Caramel Pecan Pie Bars, and Cream Cheese Lemon Crumb Cake.
Confession: I’m a lemon dessert lover, Snow-Capped Lemon Cookies, Lemon Bundt Cake, you name it. And a cream cheese lover. (If you’re a cream cheese lover like me, try my Perfect No Bake Cheesecake.) So it only makes sense that I put these two flavors together into one easy dessert, right?
Spring has sprung and with it my mindset has changed somewhat in terms of what flavors and foods I’m in the mood for. Even if the days are somewhat chilly and it’s not quite yet time to start the garden, I’m still thinking about cookouts, picnics, potlucks, and those days when friends stop over for a bit and end up staying through dinner. Those are the best days right?
These classic lemon bars are perfect for those days…well, for any day really! But, if you’re looking for a delicious dessert that isn’t too heavy and uses a lot of pantry and fridge staples, then this is it my friends!
Ingredients:
- Flour
- Granulated sugar
- Salt
- Butter
- Cream cheese
- Fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Powdered sugar
Here’s How You Make It
Did I mention these lemon bars are so easy to make?
- First thing you need to do is preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9 x13-inch pan with foil or parchment paper. Leave plenty of overhang around the edges so that you can lift the bars out of the pan before cutting.
- In a blender or a food processor combine the flour, sugar, salt, and butter cubes to make the crust. Cover and pulse to combine the dough into fine crumbs. You can do this with a pastry cutter, fork, or fingers in a large bowl if you prefer.
- Press the crust into your prepared pan and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. While it cooks, turn your attention to the filling.
- To make the filling, combine the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl. Cream together until it’s smooth. Then, mix in the flour, powdered sugar, lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla until they are all incorporated into the cream cheese and sugar mixture.
- When the crust is done, spread the cream cheese filling over the crust and put it back into the oven for 30 minutes.
- Let the lemon cream cheese bars cool for about 20 minutes, then cover them and put them in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight to chill. When you’re ready to dive in, lift the foil edges up out of the pan to remove the dessert. Slice into squares, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you aren’t going to eat all these cream cheese lemon bars right away and you have some leftover (which would be shocking to me that anyone would have leftovers), then you should store them in the fridge. Just put them in a covered container if you’ve already sliced them into squares.
Or, if you know you’ll only be eating a few, you could put the rest back into the pan you cooked them in and cover it with foil and put in the fridge for later.
You can easily freeze cream cheese so long as it’s made with full-fat cream cheese. What I like to do is either freeze the whole thing by wrapping the cream cheese lemon bars — pan and all — in plastic wrap then add foil to the top of that to make sure the bars don’t get freezer burn. You can keep them in the freezer for about a month.
Or, you can freeze individual slices of the lemon bars with a shortbread crust. Cut them as instructed, then put the slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Put the tray into the freezer to freeze the lemon bars individually. This will take about 6 hours or overnight. When they are frozen, you can take them off the tray and wrap them individually in plastic wrap then put them all in an airtight, freezer-safe container. This way, you can take one out at a time and not eat them all at once.
To thaw, put the pan in the fridge overnight and then cut them as directed. Eat within two days (keeping them in the fridge in between). Once they’re thawed, do not refreeze them.
More Easy Dessert Recipes
- Strawberry Cobbler (the easiest and BEST you’ll ever make – THAT CRUST)
- Easy Apple Crisp
- Lemon Bundt Cake from Scratch
- Cream Cheese Lemon Crumb Cake (that filling. that CRUMB topping. that glaze.)
- Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting (crowd pleaser!)
- Lemon Blueberry Bread
- Super Soft Peanut Butter Cookies (reader favorite!)
Did you make these cream cheese lemon bars? I’d be thrilled if you would give it a rating below!
Cream Cheese Lemon Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
For the Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup flour
- ¾ cups fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar, plus more for topping
- 6 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×13 inch pan with foil or parchment with plenty of overhang around the edges to lift the bars out of the pan before cutting.
- Prepare the crust by combining flour, sugar, salt, and butter cubes in a food processor or blender. Cover and pulse until fine crumbs form. (You can also do this with a pastry cutter, fork, or with your fingers in a large bowl.)
- Press crust into prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes while you prepare the filling.
- Prepare the filling by combining cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl. Cream together until smooth. Mix in flour, powdered sugar, lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla until completely incorporated.
- Pour filling over crust and return to oven for 30 minutes.
- Allow to cool for about 20 minutes, then cover and transfer chill in the fridge 4 hours or overnight. Lift the foil edges to remove the bars from the pan, slice into squares, sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Absolutely great, but was wondering if anyone has tried switching out the lemon juice for raspberry juice?
I bet that would be delicious!
I am extremely disappointed. I followed this recipe to the letter, chilled the lemon bars overnight just to be safe, and when I pulled them out in the morning to serve, the middle is purely liquid. Now I have a 9×13 pan full of liquid lemon that I can’t do anything with
Same issue for me, although the flavor was on point. IF you try again, just freeze instead of refrigerate. Next time I try this, I’ll squeeze the 3/4 cup lemon juice, but pour as needed until the consistency is where I want it. Either that, OR add a bit more flour. Also, on the baking front, I’ll add maybe another 10-15 minutes.
The actual quantities of ingredients are only listed at the bottom. Then under the filling section you mention 1/4 cup flour but don’t mention anything in the prep instructions.
Loved the flavour of this recipe!! I did find that the ratio of crust to filling was too much and think I might try halfing the crust recipe so it’s not so thick. Loved it though!!
I read your comment before making this for the first time, so I did half the crust recipe. I also added some lemon zest into the crust. I made it yesterday for my daughter’s birthday, and it was delicious!! We both agreed that the crust was perfect, but it would definitely be too much if I had used the full recipe.
I will be making this again, for sure.
I haven’t tried this recipe, but with cream cheese and lemon…. well, you can’t go wrong. I do have a question though. Two sticks of butter is actually half a cup of butter. As I read your recipe it would seem that 1 cup of butter would be just too much for 2 cups of flour when making the bottom. Please confirm. Then to be sure I am going to try this recipe. Thank you so much.
The recipe’s measurements are correct.
Thanks a bunch for replying. I’m making it at this moment. 😀
A full stick of butter absolutely is 1/2 cup.
Be sure you aren’t using the little “half sticks” of butter that are popular these days because they are equivalent to 1/4 cup each.
I’d like to try making this with bottled lemon juice. Do you think it would still be good?
It would probably be ok, but I do recommend using fresh if possible.
I made these and loved them. They are so light and delicious. Then I wanted to make lemon bars and couldn’t find this recipe so I used another from a Google search, and they were a disappointment–so sweet they’d send you into diabetic shock. And heavy. I was happy that I had sent this recipe to my kids so I was able to retrieve it. I won’t make any other from now on!
As the seasoned Baker I was very dubious of this recipe. Batter for filling was very thin and I didn’t think it would ever thicken to the correct consistency. I followed the recipe exactly and after 30 minutes of baking removed it from the oven and then cooled and put them in the fridge This morning when I went to slice them they were perfect I was very surprised I also thought the 3/4 cup of lemon juice was over the top but my husband commented that they could even be more lemony .This recipe is definitely a keeper thank you very much.
The filling is still very jiggly at the end of 30 minutes baking. Will it set up at room temp, or should I keep baking until it is firmer?
Recipe is so easy. I couldn’t believe how good it came out and everyone loved them. I’ve made them a couple of time since. Thank you!❤