Lemon Bars are one of our favorite treats.

If you ask me,  lemon bars are a MUST during the summer, just like ice cream. The intense lemon tanginess mixed with the sweetness and buttery flavor and the crunchy texture of the Biscoff cookie crust is a definite yes!

Biscoff cookie crust! The combination and contrast of these flavors result in a delicious-melt-in-your-mouth bar. Living in Florida makes us fortunate enough to have lemons in season basically all year round. But there’s something about cold treats during the summer of course.

I got the idea of using Biscoff cookies after our first visit to Costo.

See, believe it or not, we discovered Costco while living in California.

They don’t have one near where we live in St Pete, Florida. In California, we cooked for the two of us so there was not much reason for us to go to Costco’s. Until of course,  while having some pizza at Pieology we thought  “let’s explore and just see what they have” since there’s one located almost next door. Long story short, we ended up with a package of biscoff cookies containing 4 – 8.8oz-  sleeves and a membership.

That’s how the brilliant idea of using the Biscoff cookies festival as a crust came up! And it worked perfectly. The filling of the bars is a little tart and intense from the lemon juice and lemon zest but the minute you bite into the crust the sweetness and the crunchiness of the Biscoff crust compensates and everything melts in your mouth simultaneously…in other words to faint in seconds, right? Additionally, the use of Biscoff cookies makes the process way easier.

What are lemon bars made of?

• Eggs
• Lemons – the juice and zest
• Butter
• Biscoff Cookies
• Truvia or Sugar
• Vanilla Extract
• Cornstarch or flour
• Confectioners’ sugar or Swerve

TIPS:

• It is very important to lower the temperature of the oven to 325° after you bake the crust. Temperature and time are key to get the perfect consistency of the bars. Make sure not to overcook the custard as it will crack.
• I tend to use one extra egg yolk in my custards just to make them richer and creamier. It will also change the consistency of the bars to set slightly loser but feel free to omit it, it is completely optional.
• Natural lemon juice is a must for lemon bars, in my opinion, there’s no substitute for that. I used 2 big lemons and I was lucky to get more than enough lemon zest and lemon juice, I would suggest getting more than 2 since all depends on how much juice you can get out of them.
• Most people don’t use vanilla extract with lemon bars, I like to use 1/2 tsp because we love vanilla and to offset the tartness of the lemon juice.
• I made these bars with Truvia, and you can’t even tell the filling doesn’t have any sugar. I just thought that it would be better to lighten them up since they have eggs and an important amount of butter in them. Honestly, they came so good that I needed to post about them here.

I can’t wait to make them again (and so does Guy!).

Originally published on August 17, 2016. Updated on August 20, 2020.

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Lemon Bars with Biscoff Crust

Yield: 16 bars

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Additional Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 40 minutes

The most delicious lemon bars! Tangy, sweet, rich with the buttery crunch of Biscoff cookies. Very easy to make and lighten up just a little

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Ingredients

• CRUST:
• 6 oz of Bicoff cookies, crumbled - about 3/4 of a package
• 6 tbs of butter, melted
• FILLING:
• 5 eggs at room temperature + 1 egg yolk (additional egg yolk optional)
• 1 cup of Truvia or sugar
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1 cup or 8 oz of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
• 2 tbs of flour or cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• Confectioners' sugar for garnishing and dusting - I prefer to use Swerve

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit
2. Cover an 8 x 8-inch pan with parchment paper

Crust:

1. Melt butter at low temperature in a small pan. Place crumble Biscoff cookies in the food processor and process until finely ground. Start processing again at low and slowly add the melted butter for about another minute.
2. Place Biscoff mixture into the pan and press into the bottom evenly with your hand and bake for 5 minutes or until slightly toasted. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Lower the oven temperature to 325° F.

Filling - the custard or curd

1. In a medium pan, whisk Truvia (or sugar) with lemon juice, vanilla, flour or cornstarch, eggs, and salt. Add butter and cook over medium heat, constantly stir with a wooden spoon gently until the butter melts completely and the mixture starts to thicken and covers the back of the spoon - approximately 7-8 minutes. Try no to let the mixture boil, if it does, it will curdle. Use a fine mesh or a colander to transfer into a cool bowl.
2. Transfer the mixture to a cool bowl, add the lemon zest, and keep stirring gently until it cools down.
3. Pour curd over the top of the crust and bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the edges of the curd are set and the center is no longer wobbly. Try not to overcook the curd, remove from oven before it cracks. It took me 14 minutes to be set.
4. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Cover and place in the refrigerator until completely cold (about 4 hours or overnight, even better).
5. Lift bars from the pan using overhanging parchment paper and place on a cutting board. Cut bars into 16 pieces of 2x2 inches or as the desired size with a sharp knife, cleaning the edge of the knife with a wet paper towel after each cut.
   

Notes

I recommend using a thin blade knife to cut the bars. The best method is to sink the knife in hot water and wipe the knife with a paper towel after each cut. The hot water will remove the pieces from the knife. Try to push the knife to the bottom and then pull, avoiding the "saw" motion to prevent chunks to stick to the next cut.

Dust with the confectioners' sugar before serving.

The bars will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days - if you don't finish them earlier 😉

Nutrition Information

Yield 16 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 237Total Fat 15gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 6gCholesterol 96mgSodium 177mgCarbohydrates 39gFiber 1gSugar 12gProtein 3g

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