Healthy lemon bars that are gluten free and paleo make for the most perfect easy summer dessert. Made with an almond flour and coconut flour crust, and a simple filling sweetened with only maple syrup. Your whole family will love this healthy dessert recipe.
Have you ever made lemon bars before? How about healthy lemon bars? No? Well we are about to change that and I’m pretty certain that it won’t be the last time that you do because it is easy and incredibly delicious.
Traditional lemon bars, while super tasty and one of my favorite childhood desserts, are packed with less than healthy ingredients, so in a typical Erin Lives Whole effort to take a traditional baked good and turn it into a healthier dessert.
And so that’s exactly what I did! I created a healthy lemon bar recipe made totally gluten free with ingredients like coconut flour and almond flour. Instead of refined white sugar we replaced it with natural maple syrup, but I swear that healthy eaters and non healthy eaters a like will love this recipe!
Ingredients in healthy lemon bars
There are only a few simple ingredients in this recipe for healthy lemon bars. You may already have all of the ingredients on hand. Now you’re well on your way to making some of the best creamy, yet firm enough to hold together lemon bars.
Lemon bar crust
Lemon bar filling
- eggs
- lemon juice (freshly squeezed!)
- maple syrup
- lemon zest
- coconut flour
How to make lemon bars
You’ll want to start by making the crust! We use a blend of almond flour and coconut flour for the crust, as I’ve found that yields the sturdiest result while still being moist enough. All almond flour and it is too soft. All coconut flour and it is too dry. So we meet in the middle and found a perfect crust!
Mix together your flours, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt. This will create a dough that you should be able to press into a greased or parchment lined 8×8 pan. Then throw that baby in the oven and bake!
While the crust is baking, prepare your filling so that you will be ready to pour it on top of your hot crust right when it comes out of the oven!
Squeeze your lemons to get fresh lemon juice, then whisk that together with eggs, maple syrup, and lemon zest. Sift in your coconut flour for extra fine texture and then whisk until there are no clumps!
Right when your crust is done baking, lower the oven temp down and pour your filling on top. Let it bake until set in the middle (a little jiggle is ok!) then cool at room temperature. Once cool, refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Cut and serve! I like to sprinkle powdered sugar on top as well. So good!
What’s the best way to store lemon bars?
Store the lemon bars in the refrigerator. They are best eaten within 48 hours, as the crust will begin to get a little bit soft. So these are one of those desserts that best made the night before and served the next day!
We also freeze any leftovers and then defrost in the fridge to eat for the next day.
If you make this recipe, be sure to comment below and let me know how it was! Also tag @erinliveswhole on Instagram and use the hashtag #erinliveswhole so I can see it and feature you!
Here are some other similar recipes that you may also like!
Healthy Lemon Bars (Gluten-Free)
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 bars 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Healthy lemon bars that are gluten free and paleo make for the most perfect easy summer dessert. Made with an almond flour and coconut flour crust, and a simple filling sweetened with only maple syrup. Your whole family will love this healthy dessert recipe.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1.5 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
Filling
- 3 eggs + 1 egg yolk
- 3/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 4 large lemons)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp coconut flour, sifted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper or nonstick spray.
- In a bowl, mix together all of your crust ingredients until well combined.
- Press into the bottom of the 8×8 baking dish and bake for 15 minutes.
- While crust is baking, whisk together all filling ingredients, adding sifted coconut flour last. Whisk until all clumps are gone.
- Once crust comes out of the oven, pour filling immediately on top.
- Lower oven temp to 325F and bake for 20-22 minutes or until filling is set. A little jiggle is ok!
- Let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes then transfer to fridge for at least 3 hours.
- Add powdered sugar (not paleo, but delicious) and cut and serve!
*Notes for storing in post.
- Category: baking, dessert, gluten-free
Keywords: lemon bars, healthy lemon bars, gluten free dessert, gluten free lemon bars
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Great summer dessert!
★★★★★
Can you use regular all purpose flour to make the crust instead?
Yes! Just look up a basic shortbread crust recipe with AP flour + you should be good.
These sound amazing… I LOVE lemon bars!! Will the crust possibly work with just coconut flour?
Yes!!! You can totally do it with just coconut flour. I would google ‘basic coconut flour shortbread crust’ for exact measurements
If making these Keto, what kind alternative sweetener would you recommend to replace the maple syrup? These looks amazing!
Is there any other liquid sweetener for keto? I’m not familiar with the rules of the diet!
These are super easy to make and taste absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Thanks Linda!!
Thank you for posting this. I never made lemon bars before, so I figured why not make gluten-free lemon bars? These bars are as good or better than any of the lemon bars at the dessert bar in any Las Vegas buffet.
★★★★★
I love to hear that!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I would like to make this recipe (and many of your others!) but my daughter can’t have almonds. She can have any other nut except almonds and is gluten free. Do you think oat flour would work in this recipe and in general as a substitute in your other recipes?
HI Leanne! I would just stick to coconut flour if you can. I would do about 1/3 cup total. It’s very absorbent, but you can play with the amount to get the right texture. Oat flour and almond flour aren’t equal exchanges, especially for a crust. Oat is much softer, so works better in things like breads or muffins.
So lemony and delicious! These are the perfect t summer treat!
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing, Sarah! So happy that you liked them!
Made this last week. Soooo good. My boyfriend is a huge lemon bar fan. He was surprised they were so healthy. Thanks for the recipe, Erin. I plan on making these again.
★★★★★
Thank you so much Adrienne, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. So glad you loved them.
When I made them, they turned out pretty good, but they were pretty sour, and I’ve never tried any lemon bars before, so I just want to be sure they’re supposed to taste sour, right?
Hm, I’ve never had anyone say they were sour. Are you sure you put in the right amount of sweetener? Also, you could always had some powdered sugar on top to sweeten them up.
True. And I’m quite sure I put the right amount of sweetener. Maybe it’s possible I could have added a bit too much lemon juice?
I definitely used too much lemon but that’s my own fault. Still yummy!
The crust is amazing. I feel like it would be really good as a pumpkin pie crust. Think that would be possible? What would I need to do differently as far as baking it?
★★★★★
Yay! Glad you liked em.
It would be amazing as a pumpkin pie crust! I would just do the same thing in terms of baking. You may not even need to pre-bake it if the pie is in for longer than 30 minutes or so.