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    Home » Desserts

    Vegan lemon bars

    Published: Feb 16, 2022 · by Nico

    Jump to Recipe

    These vegan lemon bars are easy to make, delicious, and full of lemon flavor thanks to a finger-licking vegan lemon curd.

    This is a colorful and fun dessert recipe, perfect to make for your family and friends.

    vegan lemon bars
    On this page:
    • What to expect
    • Ingredients and substitutions
    • Instructions
    • Variations
    • Dinner menu ideas
    • Storage
    • Recipe

    What to expect

    Louise holding a vegan lemon bars

    Vegan lemon bars are a simple dessert made with an easy, lemony shortcrust pastry as a base, and finger-licking lemon curd on top.

    We use everyday ingredients for this recipe, and we simplified the steps to make these bars as much as possible, so you can have this delicious treat whenever you want to, without much work at all.

    These vegan lemon bars are a colorful and fun dessert that will surprise everyone with their light lemony crust and irresistible lemon curd.

    Ingredients and substitutions

    Vegan shortcrust pastry

    ingredients for the pie crust
    • Flour: you can use all-purpose flour or a blend of half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour.
    • Sugar: white sugar or brown sugar.
    • Oil: any neutral vegetable oil. We like to use sunflower seed oil.
    • Lemon zest: to add a pleasant lemony flavor to our crust.
    • Baking powder: just a tiny bit, to make the crust more friable.

    Vegan lemon curd

    lemon curd ingredients
    • Plant milk: you can use any plant milk, such as oat milk, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk and so on.
    • Sugar: any.
    • Cornstarch: this is essential to thicken the curd.
    • Lemons: lemon curd requires lemon juice and lemon peel. Make sure your lemons are ripe, and I would also recommend to get organic ones, since we are using the peel.
    • Turmeric: to add the yellow colour to our vegan lemon curd. You won't taste it, it's just for color.
    vegan lemon bars

    Instructions

    Vegan shortcrust pastry

    Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C.

    Line the baking pan with parchment paper. I'm using a squared 10 by 10 inches or 25 by 25 cm pan, but a round one of 10 inches or 26 centimeters in diameter is also totally fine. 

    What’s important is to let some of the parchment paper go over the edges of the pan so that it will be easier to remove the pie from it once baked.

    To a bowl, add ¼ cup or 50 grams of sugar, 3 tablespoons or 45 grams of water, 3 tablespoons or 40 grams of vegetable oil, and the grated zest of one lemon.

    wet ingredients for vegan lemon bars

    Mix with a spatula to combine the ingredients, then sift in 1⅓ cups or 200 grams of all-purpose flour, and 1 teaspoon or 5 grams of baking powder.

    dry ingredients in a bowl

    We mix with a spatula till the flour absorbs the liquids, then with our hands, we knead the dough for just a minute. We can do this in the bowl since we really just have to bring the ingredients together. 

    For this pie crust, we don’t want to knead the dough too much because we don’t want to develop the gluten that would make our pie crust less crumbly and too compact.

    wet and dry ingredients together in a bowl

    Next, we transfer the dough into the baking pan and compress it with our hands to create a base layer of dough, making sure the dough sticks together.

    pie crust in the baking tray

    Now make some holes with a fork, then bake in the oven at 350F or 180C for 15 minutes.

    vegan pie crust ready to be baked

    Take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before adding the lemon curd on top. Do not turn off your oven, as we'll need it again in a minute.

    pie crust just baked

    Vegan lemon curd

    So, while the pie crust cools down, we can make the lemon curd.

    The secret to great lemon curd is, well, good lemons, or better, their peel and juice. So as a first step, remove the peel from one lemon and add it to a medium saucepan.

    lemon peel in a sauce pan

    Then take 3 medium-size lemons, you can reuse the zested lemon and the peeled lemon, cut them in half, and squeeze their juice.

    You’ll need ⅓ cup or 80 grams of lemon juice. Pass it through a sieve and into a small container and set aside. 

    Filtering the lemon with a sieve is important because we don’t want any lemon pieces or seeds in our lemon curd.

    squeezing the lemons

    Now to the medium saucepan, add 2 cups or 500 grams of plant milk of your choice, we use rice milk, ½ cup or 100 grams of sugar, we use cane sugar, and ½ cup or 60 grams of cornstarch to help the lemon curd thicken. 

    Then if we want to give it some yellow color, we can add a pinch of turmeric powder.

    lemon curd before cooking

    Whisk to remove all lumps, then bring onto medium heat and keep stirring till the curd thickens up. 

    Remove the lemon peel, then add the lemon juice and keep stirring for another minute until the lemon juice is fully absorbed by the custard. And here you go, that’s our vegan lemon curd and It’s absolutely incredible!

    vegan lemon curd in a saucepan

    Lemon bars

    The final step in making our vegan lemon bars is to pour the lemon curd onto the baked crust and level it off with a spatula.

    lemon curd on top of the pie crust

    Bake in the oven at 350F or 180C for another 15 minutes then let cool down for about an hour before taking it out of the pan.

    vegan lemon square

    Cut the big square into smaller squares or bars, and serve. Right before serving, we can sprinkle with powdered sugar on top of the vegan lemon bars, keeping in mind that it will dissolve after a few seconds.

    vegan lemon bars

    Variations

    Vegan lemon bars can be easily turned into a vegan lemon tart with a crunchy base,

    Vegan lemon tart with crunchy crust
    Vegan lemon tart with a crunchy crust

    or into a vegan lemon crostata with a soft base.

    vegan lemon tart with soft crust
    vegan lemon tart with a soft crust

    Dinner menu ideas

    Serve these vegan lemon bars as a dessert with:

    Mini pizzas as a starter.

    mini pizzas

    Oven-baked chickpea stew as a main.

    chickpea stew with cauliflower rice

    Cauliflower rice with lemon and parsley as a side dish.

    cauliflower rice with parsley and lemon

    Storage

    You can keep the vegan lemon bars at room temperature for about half a day.

    To keep them for longer, store them in the refrigerator, flat on a plate, for a couple of days, and don’t stack the bars on top of each other, or they’ll get soggy. 

    Recipe

    vegan lemon bars

    Vegan lemon bars

    Author: Nico
    These vegan lemon bars are easy to make, delicious, and full of lemon flavor thanks to a finger-licking vegan lemon curd.
    This is a colorful and fun dessert recipe, perfect to make for your family and friends.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Share Recipe
    4.88 from 8 votes
    Prep Time 15 mins
    Cook Time 30 mins
    Total Time 45 mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine International
    Servings 16 lemon bars
    Calories 136 kcal

    Equipment

    • baking pan 10 by 10 inch (25 by 25 cm)

    Ingredients
     
     

    CRUST

    • 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour
    • ¼ cup sugar
    • 3 tablespoons water
    • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (sunflower, canola, or other)
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1 lemon (the grated zest)

    LEMON FILLING

    • 2 cups plant milk (almond, oat, rice, soy, or other)
    • ½ cup sugar
    • ½ cup cornstarch
    • 1 pinch turmeric (for the yellow color)
    • ⅓ cup lemon juice
    • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar optional to sprinkle on top

    Instructions
     

    CRUST

    • Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C.
      Line the baking pan with parchment paper, letting some of the parchment paper go over the edges of the pan so that it will be easier to remove the pie from the pan.
      parchment paper
    • To a bowl, add the grated zest of one lemon, sugar, water, and oil. Mix with a spatula to combine.
      lemon zest
    • Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix with a spatula till the flour absorbs the liquids.
      sifting flour
    • With your hands, knead the dough for just a minute. You can do this in the bowl.
      mixing dough
    • Transfer the dough into the baking pan and flatten it and compress it with your hands to create a compact base layer of dough.
      dough in baking pan
    • Make some holes with a fork, then bake in the oven at 350F or 180C for 15 minutes. Keep the oven turned on once baked.
      baked crust

    LEMON CURD

    • To a medium saucepan, add the peel of one lemon (not the grated zest, the peel), plant milk, sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of turmeric to add a light yellow colour.
      Stir with a whisk till there are no lumps.
      lemon peel
    • Squeeze the lemons to produce ⅓ cups (80 grams) of lemon juice. Filter it with a sieve and set it aside (you don't want small bits of lemon in the curd).
      filtering lemon juice
    • Bring the saucepan onto medium heat and stir the liquid with a whisk until it thickens.
      cooking curd
    • Add the lemon juice and keep stirring with the whisk to incorporate the lemon juice in it until it's fully absorbed by the custard.
      adding lemon juice

    LEMON BARS

    • Let the crust cool down for 10 minutes, then pour the lemon curd onto the baked crust and level it off with a spatula.
      pouring curd over crust
    • Bake in the oven at 350F or 180C for another 15 minutes.
      baked curd
    • Let cool down for about an hour before taking it out of the shape.
      Cut into squares and serve. Right before serving you can sprinkle with powdered sugar, but keep in mind that it will dissolve after a seconds.
      cutting vegan lemon bars

    Video Recipe

    https://youtu.be/4s2QyYmAgA0

    Nutritional Values

    Nutrition Facts
    Vegan lemon bars
    Amount Per Serving
    Calories 136 Calories from Fat 27
    % Daily Value*
    Fat 3g5%
    Saturated Fat 1g6%
    Trans Fat 1g
    Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
    Monounsaturated Fat 1g
    Potassium 95mg3%
    Carbohydrates 25g8%
    Dietary Fiber 1g4%
    Sugar 10g11%
    Protein 2g4%
    Vitamin A 118IU2%
    Vitamin B6 1mg50%
    Vitamin C 8mg10%
    Vitamin E 1mg7%
    Vitamin K 5µg5%
    Calcium 56mg6%
    Folate 34µg9%
    Iron 1mg6%
    Manganese 1mg50%
    Magnesium 4mg1%
    Zinc 1mg7%
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
    Did you like this recipe?We are not much on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Leave us a comment below instead, it would mean the world to us 🙂

    If you liked this recipe, you might also like:

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    • 43 Plant-Based Desserts
    • 25+ Best Vegan Brunch Recipes
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