Sweet and tart, these Strawberry Lemon Bars are easy to make from scratch. This lemon bar recipe starts with a buttery shortbread crust that can be made both gluten-free and dairy-free.

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🧾Strawberry Lemon Bar Ingredients
⏲️How to Make Strawberry Lemon Bars
Strawberry Lemon Bars Tips
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⭐Reviews

You will love these lemon bars. Not just because they are pink, but that is a bonus. But because you can make them with regular flour or feed them to a crowd and not one person will realize you made them gluten and dairy-free.

As someone who has made these fruity lemon bars GF at least 20 times, my opinion is that the best measure. And if you want something right this minute that requires no baking try out my almond flour edible cookie dough.

🧾Strawberry Lemon Bar Ingredients

Flour- If you want to use gluten-free flour I recommend using a dairy-free cup for cup variety that already includes xanthan gum. This recipe needs about a cup and a half of flour. If your flour blend doesn't contain xanthan gum add a ¼ teaspoon.
Sugar- You can use granulated or coconut sugar in this recipe. Both work equally well.
Kosher Salt- Never underestimate the power of salt in baking. Always use kosher salt, not table salt.
Butter- Use unsalted butter or for dairy-free use vegan butter sticks. I find they bake very similar to butter. I tried coconut oil in the shortbread but found it was too oily and the bars didn't hold.
Strawberries- I use fresh strawberries when in season and frozen during the winter. Both work equally well. But you can also substitute any berry. Blackberry lemon bars? Yes, please!
Lemons- Use fresh-squeezed juice and zest. You will need 2 to 3 lemons for this recipe.
Eggs- This recipe uses 2 whole eggs plus 2 yolks. Because we are using gluten-free flour I find the extra yolks help keep things together.

⏲️How to Make Strawberry Lemon Bars

There are two parts to lemon bars- the crust and the custard. While the crust is cooling I prepare my custard.

Prepare the Crust

To start this recipe preheat the oven to 350 F degrees and prepare an 8x8 pan for baking. Place two sheets of parchment paper into the baking pan, perpendicular to each other, and brush with melted vegetable or coconut oil.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment briefly mix the dry ingredients. Then at low speed add the butter a piece at a time. Slowly mix until a dough forms and begins to pull away from the side. This typically takes about 2 minutes.

Press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan and about ½" up the sides. Chill at least 30 minutes. Don't skip this part!

Prick bottom of crust with a fork and bake until light golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Turn down the oven to 300 F degrees.

The crust needs to cool on the counter (not in the fridge) for 15 minutes or so. This is when I start my custard.

Prepare the Strawberry Lemon Custard

This recipe uses a strawberry puree that has been strained through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the pulp and seeds. You need about ⅓ of a cup. If you have extra reserve for another use like a fruity lemonade.

To make the lemon custard whisk eggs, granulated sugar, and lemon juice and zest in a mixing bowl. This may take a few minutes so a mixer can be helpful. Pour in strawberry puree and whisk until smooth.

At this point add your flour blend and whisk until just combined. I always hand mix in my flour as it can get very frothy when using a hand mixer.

Pour the filling into crust and bake until the filling is set and slightly golden at the edges, usually around 25 minutes. However, I find the humidity in my kitchen really affects the baking time of this recipe.

Allow the bars to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Then refrigerate until chilled usually 2 hours. Using the parchment paper pull the entire pan of bars out at once. Dust lightly with powdered sugar and cut into squares.

gluten free lemon bars with powdered sugar

Strawberry Lemon Bars Tips

Don't underestimate chilling the crust before baking. This will give the gluten-free flour time to hydrate which is very important in GF baking.
Roll and press lemons on the kitchen counter before cutting them. This will soften them and make hand juicing easier.
Lined your pan with parchment paper that overhangs on either side. This will make removing the finished lemon bars a breeze. I use two pieces that are laid perpendicular to each other.
For a thicker lemon bar, double the recipe but use a 9x13 pan.
Don't skip parbaking the crust, this will prevent a gummy center.
Don't worry about bubbles on top, the powdered sugar will cover. If you really want to pour the custard through a mesh strainer to remove them.
Out of powdered sugar? Add one tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 cup of sugar to a spice grinder. Grind until powdery- 2-3 minutes.
Be careful when checking on the bars, my center wasn't set and it splashed everywhere when I pulled the rack out (see terrible mess below). No worries the powder sugar hid my mistake!
Not gluten-free? Not dairy-free? Both regular all-purpose flour and butter work for this recipe without any other changes.

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