Lemon Bars that are low carb/sugar and gluten free! These luscious lip smacking bars have all the flavors you are familiar with, but these can be enjoyed by those watching their carb and sugar intake.
Just in time for Mother’s Day I’m bringing lemon bars that you’ll want to make for all the special ladies in your life! Grandma, Madre, your neighbor that you carpool with that helps shuttling the kids from one event to the next; your best friend that never had children, but looked after yours like they were her own. Yeah, ALL the women that have shown their love and support in your life deserves lemon bars!
As I mentioned when I made these Low Carb Cheesecake Brownies I am experimenting with the technique of baking with gluten-free, low-carb, and low sugar ingredients and I love the results!
For a long time I have limited my sugar and refined carbs because my body doesn’t burn those off like it used to (sucks big time!), but I figured treats were in a different category and nothing was off limits since I don’t eat them often, but I’m finding that I like the challenge of turning recipes that I enjoy into a healthier snack!
I also want to have a collection of gluten-free treat options at my finger tips since there are so many people that avoid wheat in foods. Plus, when I share them no one notices that I didn’t use granulated sugar or wheat in the recipe!
These bars have a creamy filling with a little zesty tang from the fresh lemon juice that’s followed up with sweetness. I used coconut oil in the crust, but you can substitute it for the same ratio of butter if you would like.
- Crust
- ¾ cup coconut oil
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- ¼ cup powdered sugar (Swerve for no sugar)
- Lemon Filling
- ½ cup Truvia Baking Blend or Swerve for no sugar
- 4 large eggs
- ⅔ cups fresh lemon juice (about 4 large lemons)
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 4 tablespoons almond flour
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8" x 8" baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
- For the crust melt the coconut oil in the microwave until it liquifies. Add powdered sugar, egg yolk and stir until blended. In a small separate bowl whisk together the almond and coconut flours with the salt. Add to liquid and mix forming a dough. Press onto the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly brown. Cool on a baking rack.
- For the lemon filling in a medium bowl beat the eggs and Truvia with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest. Fold in the almond flour.
- Pour over crust and bake for about 20 minutes or until filling has set. Cool on a baking rack and refrigerate for about an hour before cutting.
- Garnish with powdered sugar and fruit of your choice.
Adapted from Coconut Oil Cooking, Healthy Lemon Bars (Now I can’t find the exact link).
I used the Truvia Baking Blend Natural Sweetener to bake muffins, peanut butter cookies and several sweet breads for Christmas to give to some friends that can’t have sugar.
I’ve added Truvia in place of sugar only a couple of times and am pleased with the flavor and the fact that it doesn’t raise your sugar level like regular sugar! I’m also going to try some other brands to see which I like best!
Just an FYI…. Trivia baking blend has regular sugar in it! The carbs in this blend are the same as if you used regular table sugar.
If you are avoiding sugar completely then a different sweetener should be used. Truvia blend has half of the carbs of granulated sugar with the help from stevia leaf extract and erythritol. https://www.truvia.com/health/carbohydrates Have you tried Swerve? I just purchased the powdered sugar to test.
I love lemon bar, never thought they could be made low carb.
I hear you about burning out sugar at a very snail pace! aarrrgh…
Nice to come across a recipe with low sugar.
Thank you 😀
I am a bit of a sucker when comes to lemon bars, and I love the use of the unrefined flours in the base. Yum!
How gorgeous do these look!? I absolutely love lemon cake and the fact they’re a healthier version. The challenge of turning desserts in healthier ones is surprisingly fun and so satisfying when it turns out better than the original 🙂
Your lemon bars look gorgeous and sound really tasty too! Love that they are also gluten free.
Lemon bars look delicious creamy soft and the very look of it is tempting. Its so heavenly to have such lemon bars
I love lemon even more than chocolate so these are right up my alley. Love the fact that these little treats are low carb and lovely. Don’t you just long for the days you could eat a whole pizza and then just go for a run and not gain an ounce… 🙂 Sharing everywhere!
I am in the process of making these, the dough for the crust is very runny, more like a thin cake batter. I read and reread the instructions several times, what could be wrong??? Too much coconut oil for the amount of flour??? Just stuck it in the oven, we’ll see what happens!
Did you melt the oil. My oil was solid when I made it. It was a thin batter, but not runny. Let me know! I did refrigerate before cutting/serving and kept them covered in the refrigerator.
This just happened to me too. I’m putting it in the fridge to try and thicken it up. In the directions, younsya that you melt the oil but in that comment you said it was solid…
Twyla, once cooked this is a soft bar. I keep them in the refrigerator. The oil starts as a solid, but then you melt in the microwave. Hope that helps!
I just wanted to follow up and tell you what happened with ,Inge since it was so runny. I put the crust in the fridge to firm up and pressed it into the cake pan. I baked it, and left it in longer because it didn’t seem to be baking right, it almost sort of raised like a cake lol. Then I put the lemon portion in after it was baked and cooled down. Well, that crust separated and I was left with some lemon on the top, a three tiered crust in the middle of the lemon bar, and then most of the lemon custard on the bottom!
It didn’t taste too bad but man was the texture strange lol. Lemon, three tiers of “crust”, and topped with lemon. I will try again one day 😊 I was wondering if maybe the fact that I used Swerve confectioners sugar contributed? Looking forward to trying your other recipes. Thanks for the response
And PS, I’m sorry for my really bad iPad typing skills!
Thanks, Twyla! I appreciate your time! The Swerve shouldn’t be an issue. It bakes up just like granulated sugar, so I’m at a loss for why yours came out so different!
The same thing happened to me last time….I didn’t let the crust cool enough before putting on the topping. Like you said, still tasted great.
mine too! Hoping for the best.
Hey there these look yummy. Do you happen to know the carb count on this recipe? And also what kind of powdered sugar did you use?
I used regular powdered sugar, but I also have used Swerve, and you can make your own! Blend 1 1/2 cups of sweetener of your choice (xylitol, erythritol) with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch or arrowroot. Measure the amount you need and store the rest for another recipe! I do not know the carb count, but it’s easy to figure out if you have an app like My fitness Pal or you can go on the web and use NutritionData.com
Thanks for sharing info❣
What else could you use as a sweetener in place of Truvia? I have tried it and find that tastes too much like Aspartame. I love lemon so these look delightful!! 🙂
If you want to stick with a sugar alternative, there is another brand that you might like called Swerve. Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding the right mix that suits your taste.
Do you have nutrition facts for these?
Hi Tara, I recently put these in My Fitness Pal to look up the macros – 158 calories, 6 grams carbs, 16 grams fat, 4 grams protein. Hope this is helpful, but please note that the type of brands you use will yield different results. These numbers takes into consideration the following: Swerve for the base and Truvia for the lemon filling.
What brand of almond flour did you use? Mine was a little dark and my lemon bars didn’t look as nice as yours in your recipe (they didn’t have that bright yellow coloring) they looked more like the almond flour. I am waiting for them to cool to taste, love the recipe and they smell great, hopefully they taste as good as they smell! But next time I would like to make them look more like your picture!
Hi Brandy! I use Bob’s Red Mill and also Simply brand from Target. Was your flour light colored? If you use almond meal, the dark skins are left on when processed. Almond flour is made from blanched almonds with the skins removed. That’s the only difference I can think of. Most almond flours I’ve seen are a light cream with hints of yellow. Let them cool well so they set, and keep them in the refrigerator.
Hi Sandra!
Using Swerve in place of the 3/4 c of sugar is 180 carbs total, just over 17 per serving. I hope I am missing something?
Thanks!
It would depend on your serving size and brand of ingredients you use. I often use Happy Forks to analyze recipes, but I hear My Fitness Pal is a good resource. I’m still looking for the best analyzer to add to the site.
@Tara there are technically carbs in Swerve but if you read about what Swerve actually is, and is made up of you’ll find out that the carbohydrates are not actually digestable… So yes, Swerve has carbs but your body can’t use them so they won’t add to your waistline but may cause some temporary bloat for people with sensitive tummys.
Thanks for those details Anna! I’ve only recently started to use Swerve (love it!), and it hasn’t given me tummy issues – yay! Tara and I have emailed back and forth trying to bring the carb count down and I suggested subbing some stevia. It’s a science project 😉
Hello, English isn’t my native language so could you please explain me what does “fold in the almond flour” exactly mean? Couldn’t figure it out and this seems like a great dessert to me. ^^
Hi Matea! It means to gently combine the ingredients. I use a large rubber spatula scooping the ingredients from the bottom of the bowl into the center until the ingredients are mixed. Hope that is helpful.
Since a lot of people who are trying to follow the Atkins Diet need to count their carb intake every day, I think it would be great if you could record the Net Carbs per serving of your meals. Because this looks really good but since I don’t know how many carbs are in it per serving I can’t make it without worrying that that there are more carbs in it then my phase of the diet allows.
I enter the ingredients I’m using into a recipe in MFP, even if the creator of a recipe posts the nutritional info, because my ingredients and theirs are probably not the same.
I’m too sensitive to any artificial sweeteners but everything else in this recipe looks awesome! I’m grain-free (and soy-free, etc.) so I’d like to try these. Any idea if alternate sweeteners? Coconut sugar? A bit of raw sugar (you’ve already got the powdered sugar after all). Any ideas? Thank you!
I think coconut sugar is a good alternative as well date sugar, although you may taste a hint of caramel using those options. Swerve is made with natural alcohol sugar, erythritol, but if you are sensitive to erythritol you may want to try stevia instead.
I am in the middle of making these Lemon Squares and have a disaster, not exactly how I wanted to start my morning off. ¾ cup of coconut oil, REALLY!!!! I have soup for a crust rather than a shortbread base. I have added another ½ Cup almond flour and 2 tbs coconut flour and more sweetener and it still isn’t thick enough to press as a shortbread base should be. There is obviously a mistake in this recipe or your coconut flour is way different from ours in Canada. I would think that ¼ Cup Coconut oil would be plenty or even ⅓. HELP!!!! I need an answer quick!
Hi Lynn! Oh goodness this isn’t how I like to start my morning either. Perhaps you need to let the ingredients sit so the flours absorb the liquid. Did you start with solid coconut oil? Yes, different brands of ingredients can make a difference. It’s impossible for me to give instructions of every type. The recipe listed reflects the photos.
I made these last night, they came out great! I read in some of the comments that the batter does not set well. I added 2 tbs of ground up quick cooking tapioca. Adds a few carbs, but the batter set up perfectly. I also exchanged the coconut oil for 1 stick of melted butter. I really was delighted at how good the tasted. I will definitely make them again! Thank you!
Thanks for commenting, Alice! It’s tricky to bake grain free. Adding psyllium husk might also thicken up the crust if the coconut oil isn’t absorbing well enough.
My sister in law and I both made these and ended up with a runny batter for the crust. Are we supposed to use softened coconut oil instead of melted? If using butter, should it just be softened? Also, can you share what brand of coconut flour and almond four you are using? Thank! They still held up but I think they’d be even better if I can figure out the crust issue.
Hi Kathryn! Not all coconut and almond flours are created equal! I have used the brands Bob’s Mill, Mementa Organic, and Target Simply, as well as Honneyville. You added the coconut oil correctly, so add an additional teaspoon of coconut flour and see if that is enough to absorb the coconut oil. You do need to wait about 5 minutes as it absorbs. It is a soft bar and I keep these in the refrigerator which will firm up the crust.
HI! I cooked mine as suggested and my crust turned out wonderful. I cooked the crust at night till light golden brown and then let it set overnight to cool. The next day I made the lemon and it turned out great too. My only thing I’m going to “tweak” is I used 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice and I felt it was a bit to sour for my liking (and I love lemons) so that’s just personal taste. Other than that it turned out just like yours (pictures) above.
Thank you for commenting! That’s a great idea to let the crust settle before filling. Hope you enjoyed the bars 🙂
By adding the extra almond flour (ours here is very, very fine) and coconut flour & sweetener I ended up with a thicker crust but it looks like it turned out. Yes, I did start with solid coconut oil. I did let it sit for quite some time so the oil would be absorbed. I am going to adjust the quantity of oil, perhaps it is different here in Canada. I used Costco coconut oil. The filling set up nicely. Can’t wait until they cool so I can test them. I plan on taking them to a luncheon tomorrow.
Good to hear. Be sure to keep them refrigerated as long as possible before serving. They are soft. In fact, you might want to freeze so they can be out at room temp longer for guests.