Bake yourself a delicious slice of summer with these SUPER easy keto lemon bars. These low carb desserts taste like a bite of sunshine!
Yes, they take a few easy steps, but trust me – they’re worth it! I’m so thankful for almond flour recipes – they let me recreate so many of my favorite low carb snacks into healthy, delicious, low carb recipes that I can have whenever I want!
And trust me, you’ll want these bright bites every single day. Let’s dive in!!
Looking for more keto desserts? Check out my keto cheesecake, keto zucchini bread, or my keto ice cream recipe.
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What I Love About This Low Carb Lemon Bars Recipe
These keto lemon bars are ridiculously gorgeous and taste addictive. They’ll be the best part of your day or the highlight of any event, plus:
- Simple, traditional ingredients that are easy to find!
- Ready in about an hour!
- A typical carby dessert is transformed into a decadent low carb delight!
Recipe Notes
This is a 2 part recipe, but you can do the second step as the first one bakes, so it’s pretty quick! These tips will have you enjoying bright summery flavors in no time!
Ingredient Notes
A few of our staple low carb ingredients come together to make these decadent and velvety low carb lemon bars –
Almond flour – this gluten free four is a low carb staple. Almonds are blanched and finely ground to make flour in all kinds of coarseness. You’ll want a fine grind of flour for these low carb lemon bars — my favorites are Bob’s Red Mill or Trader Joe’s brand.
Xantham gum – This food additive helps bind and thicken foods, and is especially helpful in gluten free baking.
Erythritol – My favorite alternative sweetener, this plant-based sugar dupe is calorie free, carb free, and has no effect on blood sugar.
When using brands like Lakanto or Swerve (my two faves!), you can swap in for equal parts with regular sugar for identical sweetness! Other brands are typically 70% as sweet.
Lemon zest – The bright peel of citrus foods, called the flavedo, adds a hit of flavor and aroma when cooking and baking. Use a microplane or the fine edge of a box grater to scrape off the zest only until you get to the bitter white pith.
Butter – Keeping the butter COLD is what gives this crust that ultra buttery, crumbly texture we all crave from shortbreads and pie crusts — Which is why we take a few extra steps to freeze, grate and freeze again.
Trust me, the extra steps make a big difference in the texture!
Powdered Erythritol – Don’t feel like buying both low carb sweeteners? Toss your granular erythritol in a food processor until it’s in powdered form. Allow the dust to settle before opening the lid!
Tools To Make
A few simple tools make this cookie recipe easy breezy!
- Box grater – This classic tool is quite underutilized now that we can buy our cheese pre-shredded at the store! But, there are still many things we need it for, like getting this butter just the right size to give us a perfectly crumbly shortbread crust.
- 9×13 dish – I use a rectangular pan for making these low carb lemon bars, but you can use a 9×9 pan if that’s what you have. It’ll give you thicker bars, so adjust the nutrition.
- Parchment paper – this slippery paper makes it super easy to lift the bars out of the pan and makes clean up a breeze! I cut my parchment just a tad longer than the tray so I can lift the whole lemony cookie brick out at once.
Storing Tips
Lemon bars have a tendency to dry out, so it’s important to keep these healthy snacks in an airtight container in the fridge. Keep them in a single layer, so they don’t stick together.
Can You Freeze Them?
Yes, and it’s a great way to keep them fresh if these low carb lemon bars are just snacks for you! A word of warning – the custard is delicate so you need to protect them.
After you cut the bars, wrap each bar well in plastic wrap, then store them all in a freezer bag. Take them out and let them thaw in the fridge overnight when you’re ready for some more!
Recipe Variations
Almost everyone puts their own spin on things like cookies – read on to see what you can customize!
- Use a different kind of crust. I modified my keto shortbread cookies recipe to make the crust for these bars, but you could also use my keto graham crackers as a crust.
- Add fruit. A great way to add some extra keto fruits to these keto lemon bars would be to sprinkle the top with fresh raspberries or blueberries
- Want to add a little crunch? Consider mixing up chopped coconut, walnuts with erythritol for a delicious “crumb” topping, similar to my low carb apple crisp or keto blueberry muffins!
More Keto Dessert Recipes
Were you transported to a warmer season by these bright and light low carb lemon bars? Check out some of my other healthy desserts:
Keto Lemon Bars
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Crust:
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 2 Cups Almond Flour
- 3/4 Cup Swerve or Lakanto (see sweetener notes below)
- 1 Teaspoon Fresh Lemon Zest
Filling:
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 1/4 Cup Almond Flour
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 Cup Swerve or Lakanto (see sweetener notes below)
- 2 1/2 Teaspoons Fresh Lemon Zest
- 1/3 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice
Instructions
Crust:
- Place butter (1 cup) in the freezer for 30 minutes before starting.
- Grate the frozen butter with a box grater then place it back in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 F and line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the xanthan gum (1 teaspoon), almond flour (2 cups), erythritol (3/4 cup) and lemon zest (1 teaspoon).
- Add the butter and toss to coat.
- Sprinkle into prepared baking dish. Use your spatula to smooth out the top so the crust is in an even layer.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20-24 minutes until edges of the crust begin to brown.
- Set aside and cool.
Filling:
- In a small bowl combine the baking powder (1/2 teaspoon), xanthan gum (1 teaspoon), and almond flour (1/4 cup) and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs (4 large in size).
- Add erythritol (1 cup), fresh lemon zest (2 1/2 teaspoons), fresh lemon juice (1/3 cup) and combine.
- Add almond flour (1/4 cup) mixture and combine.
- Pour filling over the cooled crust and bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the center of the filling is set.
- Allow the bars to cool in the pan.
- Once cooled, remove from the pan and slice.
- Sprinkle with powdered erythritol and enjoy!
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Lindsey's Tips
- Almond Flour. Using fine-grained almond flour will yield the most "flour-like" results. My favorite brands are Bob's Red Mill, Trader Joe's, or Costco brands.
- Lakanto, Swerve, or Erythritol. I stick to Lakanto and Swerve which are a 1:1 swap with traditional sugar. If using a different brand of Erythritol, keep in mind it's 70% as sweet as sugar, so you may need to add more to taste.
- Xanthan Gum is necessary for binding the ingredients of this recipe together, you CAN'T SKIP OR SUB!
If all I have is the powdered sweetener can I use that instead of the granular?
Hi Pat! You can make these with powdered sweetener — typically 1 cup of granular = 1 3/4 cup of powdered, so you’ll want to reduce the amount of sweetener you add. Come back and let us know what you think!!