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| Gloopy, yummy, gluten free, dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free lemon bars. Not the typical yellow because unrefined sugar is brown, not neon yellow. |
The other day a friend of mine posted a picture of lemon bars on Facebook. Mmmmm, they looked delicious.
I didn’t even bother opening the recipe; I knew already I wouldn’t be able to make it- it was full of gluten and eggs and sugar and probably also dairy, all things I don’t eat.
But wow, I was craving lemon bars so much after that.
I investigated quite a few lemon pie bar recipes, and all of them seemed to have the same basic idea- pie crust type bottom, baked, then a lemon curd type filling placed on top, then baked some more, and topped with powdered sugar.
Simple enough.
All I had to do to make lemon bars that I could eat was take a lemon curd recipe that I could eat, bake it on top of some gluten free pie crust, and voila- lemon bars!
Right?
Well, mostly.
But it wasn’t so easy to find a good lemon curd recipe. Because most lemon curd recipes contain eggs. Or sugar. Or dairy. Or all three.
But I found one vegan lemon curd recipe, which I then changed up and made not vegan by using honey in it, etc…
My lemon bars came out pretty awesome.
Though I must admit, because there is no egg in them, they didn’t set up as nicely as I hoped. They’re more gloopey than bar like, with a top that likes to run unless you keep it in the fridge all the time.
But the taste is phenomenal.
I’m sharing the recipe though, even though it can use a bit of tweaking. I’ll let you do the playing around with it- I’d probably add another 1/4 -1/2 cup potato starch to thicken it up some more so its more solid and less gloopy. Or maybe add 1/4-1/2 cup ground flax seed.
If you just want lemon curd- just leave out the pie crust part and you have lemon curd. 😀
Ingredients:
1 batch perfect gluten free pie crust (or any other good pie crust recipe)
1/2 cup jaggery (or any other sugar, such as unrefined coconut sugar, sucanat, or white sugar)
1/2 cup honey (or replace with any of the above sugars)
3/4 cup potato starch, corn starch, or tapioca starch
8 1/2-9 lemons, juiced
Pinch of sea salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons palm or coconut oil
Coconut sugar or xylitol or rapadura, used to make powdered sugar for dusting.
Instructions:
1. Press the pie crust into the bottom of a 9×13 baking pan with sides.
2. Bake for 10-15 minutes until solid and starting to brown.
3. Mix honey, jaggery, lemon juice, lemon zest, starch, salt, and oil in a pan, and heat up until it gets thick.
4. Pour onto the baked pie crust, and put in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. It should get more liquidy in the oven.
5. Remove from oven and chill in the fridge until solidified.
6. Blend sugar (I used coconut sugar, hence the brown) in a coffee grinder until you get a powder. Sprinkle over the entire top of the lemon bars in a thick layer. (This makes it less sticky.)
7. Cut pieces with a knife, and remove with a spatula or fork.
8. Store in the fridge.
Enjoy!
This recipe ends up being pretty lemony. Add less lemon at first, and then add as much lemon as you like, to taste.
Ever make lemon bars? What do you put in yours? Does this look like a recipe you’d try out?
