I’m so excited to welcome my good friend Iris Higgins to gfe today! She’s sharing her gluten-free Lemon Bars recipe. Okay, she calls them Lemon Squares.
I think I’ve called these much-loved classic treats both names over the years. What do you call them? I’m sure we all agree that it doesn’t matter what you call them as long as they’re delicious and you can see from the photo alone that these Lemon Bars (yeah, I’m going with Lemon Bars) are perfectly lemon and yes, absolutely luscious!
Iris is a skilled gluten-free baker among many other things. She is the author of the highly praised gluten-free cookbooks The Essential Gluten-Free Baking Guide Part 1 and The Essential Gluten-Free Baking Guide Part 2.
Now I’ll turn it over to Iris so she can share her recipe and tell you what she’s up to these days! You can read even more about Iris at the very bottom of this post.
Lemon Bars and Some Words from Iris Higgins
Hey there! I’m stopping by Gluten Free Easily today to share one of my all-time favorite recipes, Lemon Squares, although some might call these Lemon Bars. I’ve been making these since I was a kid. Now I make them gluten free, and I think they’re even better!
My name is Iris Higgins and I used to write a gluten-free recipe blog. You might remember The Daily Dietribe. You might not. It’s been a while since I was active in the gluten-free online community.
You see, I closed down my gluten-free blog to focus on my passion: teaching women how to get in touch with their intuition and regain their spark for life.
My gluten-free blog was actually part of that process for me, fulfilling a need for creativity that was lacking in my life at the time. Today, my business is all about being creative, and the passion I had for dreaming up new recipes has been taken over by dreaming up new meditations, workshops, and retreats.
But when I closed down my blog, neither Shirley nor I wanted to see all of my recipes disappear from the web. So she asked me to share some of my favorites with her audience here. This recipe for Lemon Bars is the first recipe I’ll share, and Shirley will be sharing more over time.
I’ve learned that people either love lemon desserts or hate them. Me? I will happily eat lemon meringue, lemon pie, lemon cookies, lemon cake…you name it. But my favorite lemon dessert by far is Lemon Squares, aka Lemon Bars.
Little chilled bites of tangy sweetness with just the hint of a crunchy top. Seriously. These are everything.
Even my friends who don’t like lemon desserts enjoy these. Here’s one more close-up of one of these Lemon Bars before I give you the recipe. I hope you enjoy them!
-Iris-
p.s. Although most of my recipes have been taken down, you can download my FREE e-book, Gluten Free Fan Favorites RIGHT HERE. It includes recipes for the following: buckwheat crepes, quinoa granola bars, banana muffins, English muffins, chocolate chip coffee cake, and more!
More Luscious Gluten-Free Lemon Recipes
~ Crustless Lemon Cheesecake Pie from gfe
~ Homemade Lemon Curd from Everyday Gluten-Free Gourmet
~ Lemon Chia Seed Muffins from Premeditated Leftovers via gfe
~ Lemon Sponge Cake on gfe
~ Lemon Yogurt Muffins on gfe
~ Ultra Lemon Brownies from In Johnna’s Kitchen
Gluten-Free Lemon Bars Recipe
Iris says: "Little chilled bites of tangy sweetness with just the hint of a crunchy top. Seriously. These are everything. Even my friends who don’t like lemon desserts enjoy these." Makes 9 large or 16 small bars.Note that sweet white rice flour is not the same as white rice flour. Sweet rice flour is also called Mochiko or glutinous rice flour.Gluten-Free Lemon Bars
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Originally published June 12, 2016; updated July 8 2024.
Alisa Fleming says
Wow, the crumb on these looks divine!
cheryl harris says
just the picture grabbed me! and thanks for updating us on the lovely Iris.
😉
swathiiyer says
Looks delicious gluten free lemon bars, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop. love this citrus one. pinning and tweeting
Bethany says
This looks so good!
Becky says
Do you have to use sweet rice flour? Could you use a cup for cup flour substitute? I try to limit buying lots of various flours because I never finish them
Shirley Braden says
Hi Becky–Welcome to gfe! 🙂 You could certainly try a cup-for-cup flour substitute but sweet rice flour is unique in its binding ability and texture. To get the same exact results shown and described here, you’d have to use the sweet rice flour. If you have a cup for cup flour substitute that does include some sweet rice flour, you might have better luck. I’m one who likes sticking to one flour mix as well but sweet rice flour yields such great results that I always have that particular individual flour on hand. Still, all that said, if you do try your flour mix in this recipe, please let us know your results.
Shirley
Becky says
I made them with the sweet rice flour. It took me awhile to track some down in my small Midwest community (I ended up ordering on Amazon). I am see why you said to use that! They were very good.
Shirley Braden says
Hi Becky–Yes, Amazon is the source for many of us for certain gf specialty items. So glad you got some sweet rice flour and that you enjoyed these Lemon Bars so much! You’ll find that sweet rice flour is really helpful in a number of recipes—even a small amount as part of the “mix,” so to speak. I use it in my Texas Sheet Cake recipe. I only use 1/4 cup in that recipe but it makes a difference!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and share your wonderful feedback!
Shirley
Ragas says
I am making these right now however the sugar amounts were confusing. one for the crust and 1/4th for the lemon and egg mixture?! your instructions didn’t specify.
Shirley Braden says
Hi Ragas–Welcome to gfe! 🙂 This is a guest post/recipe but yes, the first amount (1/4 cup sugar) goes in the crust and the second amount (1 cup sugar) goes in the lemon mixture that gets poured over the crust.
Enjoy!
Shirley
April J Harris says
I love lemon desserts and this is perfect for summer, Shirley. Thank you and Iris for the recipe! I’m featuring this post at the August edition of the Hearth and Soul Link party. Hope to see you there!
Shirley Braden says
Hi, April! What an honor! Thanks so very much! 🙂
Shirley
April J Harris says
My pleasure, Shirley! Have a lovely week ahead!