Desserts · Brownies & bars

Lemon bars

Name: Lemon bars
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 16 servings
Ingredients: 3/4 cup butter, melted; 1/3 cup granulated sugar; 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1/4 tsp salt; 4 egg; 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar; 3 lemons, juice and zest lemon; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; for dusting powdered sugar

Shortbread under a bright lemon curd that sets in the oven, dusted with powdered sugar. The bake-sale classic that disappears fastest in summer.

Time: 70 min (20 prep + 50 cook)
Servings: 16
Per serving: 235 kcal
Protein: 4 g

Ingredients

Crust

3/4 cup butter, melted170 g
1/3 cup granulated sugar65 g
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour220 g
1/4 tsp salt2 g

Filling

4 egg200 g
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar250 g
3 lemons, juice and zest lemon120 g
1/4 cup all-purpose flour30 g

for dusting powdered sugar25 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Stir the crust together, press into a lined 23 cm (9-inch) square pan, and bake at 175°C for 18 minutes until just golden.
Whisk the filling and pour it onto the HOT crust — hot crust seals against the curd and keeps the layers distinct.
Back in for 20–22 minutes until the middle no longer sloshes but still shimmies.
Cool fully, then chill 2 hours before cutting with a hot wiped knife. Powdered sugar just before serving; it dissolves if it waits.

Why this score

engineered against fullness

Concentrated sugar, with little protein or fiber to slow it down; dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

6% of kcal

5% water

3 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

46%

32%

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 3755 kcal goes into the pot, 1082 g of ingredients comes out as ~800 g of food → 469 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 469
Protein: (6%); 8 g
Fat: (38%); 20 g
Carbohydrates: (56%); 67 g
of which sugar: 43 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 268 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.