Strawberry Lemonade Bars

Strawberry Lemon Bars — 🍓🍋🎉 Imagine crossing lemon bars with a strawberry pie. These easy bars taste like strawberry lemonade! A firm crust with a soft and juicy strawberry and lemon filling, and topped with buttery crumbles, these EASY layered bars are perfect for casual summer entertaining, BBQs, picnics, potlucks, summer holidays, and more!

Strawberry lemonade is such a quintessential summer drink. Bars that taste like strawberry lemonade are even better than drinking it!

These strawberry lemonade bars are what you’d get if you crossed a crumble-topped strawberry pie with a lemon bar.

They’re sweet from the strawberries with some tart lemon flavor that peeks through. They’re soft, juicy, satisfying, and I love crumble-topped anything.

Between the firm crust, soft filling, juicy strawberries, fragrant lemon zest, and sandy crumbles, there are so many wonderful textures and flavors in every thick bite.

They taste fancy enough to serve at a special event, luncheon, or brunch, yet are homey and comforting. A perfect summertime treat!

This is easily my favourite recipe on your page. I have made it at least once a month since finding it last summer, and it’s a solid 10/10. I’ve made it with both strawberries and blueberries, and it is always incredible. Thank you for creating this delicious bar, I am going to go make more of them now :)

Shannon

Ingredients for Strawberry Lemon Bars

To make these strawberry lemon blondies, you’ll need: 

• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Light brown sugar
• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Egg 
• Greek yogurt
• Lemon juice and zest
• Vanilla extract
• Strawberries
• Cornstarch 

Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.

How to Make Strawberry Lemon Bars 

If you’re craving a strawberry lemon dessert, you’re going to adore these bars! Here’s an overview of how the recipe comes together:

1. Mix together the crust mixture, which also doubles as the crumble topping.
2. Set aside 3/4 cup of the mixture. Press the rest into the bottom of an 8-inch square pan. 
3. Next, whisk together the lemon filling. Pour the filling into the prepared crust.  
4. Mix together the strawberry layer and spread evenly over the lemon filling. 
5. Sprinkle the reserved crumble topping over the strawberry layer, then bake the strawberry lemon bars for about an hour.
6. Let cool for at least 2 hours before cutting into them. 

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4.48 from 159 votes

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

By Averie Sunshine

🍓🍋🎉 Imagine crossing lemon bars with a strawberry pie. These easy bars taste like strawberry lemonade! A firm crust with a soft and juicy strawberry and lemon filling, and topped with buttery crumbles, these EASY layered bars are perfect for casual summer entertaining, BBQs, picnics, potlucks, summer holidays, and more!

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Chill Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 9

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Ingredients  

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Crust and Crumble Topping

• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
• ▢ ½ cup granulated sugar
• ▢ ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ▢ 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ pinch salt, optional and to taste

Filling

• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ ½ cup plain or vanilla Greek yogurt, lite is okay (or use sour cream)
• ▢ ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ ¼ cup all-purpose flour

Strawberry Layer

• ▢ 2 heaping cups diced strawberries, (fresh or frozen; I used a combo)
• ▢ ⅓ cup granulated sugar, or 1/2 cup if berries are sour
• ▢ 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ▢ 2 teaspoons lemon zest, or to taste
• ▢ 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• ▢ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, * (see notes)

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Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray; set aside. Lining the pan will really help with cleanup and is recommended.
• Crust and Crumble Topping – In a large, microwave-safe bowl melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.
• Add the sugars and whisk to combine.
• And the flour, optional salt, and stir to combine. Mixture will be very dry and sandy with some larger, well-formed crumble pieces.
• Set a heaping 3/4 cup crumble mixture aside.
• Transfer remaining mixture to prepared pan, and using a spatula or your fingers, hard-pack the mixture to create an even, smooth, flat crust; set aside.
• Filling – In a medium bowl, add the egg, Greek yogurt, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and whisk to combine or beat with a handheld electric mixer until smooth.
• Add the flour and whisk to combine or beat with a handheld electric mixer until smooth.
• Evenly pour filling over the crust and jiggle pan to help distribute it or smooth it with a spatula; set aside.
• Strawberry Layer – In a separate medium bowl, add all filling ingredients except flour and toss to combine.
• Evaluate mixture and if it’s very thin, runny, soupy, or liquidy, add up to 2 tablespoons flour to help thicken it. If using fresh berries, you may not need any flour. Because I used half fresh and half frozen berries, I needed 2 tablespoons flour because my mixture was thin and soupy.
• Evenly distribute strawberry mixture over the filling, smoothing it lightly with a spatula.
• Evenly sprinkle with the reserved heaping 3/4 cup crust mixture. Before sprinkling, I squeeze the mixture in my palm to encourage bigger crumble pieces to form.
• Baking – Bake for about 60 to 75 minutes (place pan on a cookie sheet for insurance against overflow if your pan is quite full), or until edges are bubbling quite vigorously and there’s some bubbling in the center. Crumble topping should appear set and very pale golden.*
• Cooling – Place pan on a wire rack and allow bars to cool for at least 2 hours (overnight is even better) before slicing and serving. After cooling overnight, I placed pan in the fridge 2 hours before slicing to ensure clean, neat cuts. If you try to slice bars before they’ve cooled completely, they’ll be extremely messy and could fall apart.

Notes

*Flour in strawberry layer: If using fresh berries, you may not need any flour, and if using frozen berries you likely will need 2 tablespoons

Bake time: I used some frozen berries and the pan was very cold going into the oven and the strawberry layer was quite runny; I baked for 72 minutes. If using fresh berries, baking time will be reduced, likely right at the 60 minute mark, but start checking at 50 minutes. Watch your bars, not the clock, when evaluating doneness.

Storage:  Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, in the fridge for up to about 7-10 days (they’re good slightly chilled if you like chilled pie and I store them in the fridge), or in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Recipe adapted from Blueberry Pie Bars.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 343kcal, Carbohydrates: 56g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 49mg, Sodium: 33mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 34g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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This post is brought to you by Sunkist. Recipe, photography, and opinions expressed are my own.

Originally published July 15, 2014 and republished May 29, 2020 and July 12, 2024 with updated text.