Skip to main content
Dessert

Heavenly Lemon Bars

A sweet, buttery lemon bar with a crumbly crust and tangy lemon filling.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Heavenly Lemon Bars

Oven325°F

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crust

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Have a 9‑inch square baking pan ready.

  2. In a large bowl, mix 1/2 cup all‑purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 2 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar, and margarine until crumbly.

  3. Press the mixture into an ungreased pan.

  4. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from oven.

Make the lemon topping

  1. In a small bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg (or Egg Replacer or tofu), granulated sugar, orange juice concentrate, and lemon juice until pale and well blended.

  2. Beat in the remaining 2 Tbsp all‑purpose flour, lemon peel, and baking powder.

  3. Pour the lemon mixture over the crust.

Bake and serve

  1. Return to oven and bake until golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.

  3. When cool, cut into bars.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

834Calories
29 gProtein
23 gFat
129 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Tofu100g firm76
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Wheatnot in our table0
Pastrynot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Wheat + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Wheat + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together585 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure of the shortbread-style crust and sets the topping.
Stick margarine
Adds fat that makes the crust tender and crumbly.
Egg
Binds the lemon topping and helps it set into a smooth custard.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the lemon topping and softens its tartness.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the lemon flavour.
Baking powder
Gives the topping a little lift so it bakes lighter.

The step that matters

Baking the crust until lightly golden. Pre-baking the crust sets it before the wet topping is added, so it stays crisp rather than soggy. Underbaking leaves a pasty base that the topping can soak through.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, wheat, sugar, egg, lemon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, wheat, sugar, egg, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes