August 25, 2024
Lemon Crumble Bars!
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Sweet and zingy lemon crumble bars with an oat crumble base, lemon filling and oat crumble on top – easy and delicious
Lemon bakes
When it comes to baking with lemon, you all know it’s one of my favourite things in the world and I am completely and utterly obsessed. I just adore anything lemon flavoured as it’s so fresh, it’s never too much, and it always tastes 10/10.
Most recently I shared my lemon curd muffins and my lemon blueberry tart and they have both been endlessly popular which makes me so happy, because I love them both just as much as you all do, it appears. They are both also bakes that are so easy to achieve, and both bakes that led onto these beautiful lemon crumble bars.
Traybake recipes
When it comes to traybakes, I think we can all agree that I have smashed this section out of the park with the pure amount of content over the last 10 years. Honestly, I can’t actually count how many traybake recipes I have actually published now because it really is just too many.
One of my most popular bakes of the more recent years is my raspberry crumble bars, and after the success of these coupled with the success of the earlier mentioned lemon bakes, I wanted to merge them all together to create a bake that would be even more popular – the lemon crumble bars.
I think traybakes are such an accessible bake for anyone of any skill level, and they always taste delicious. There is simplicity behind them, as well as a lot of depth of flavour and style as you can go anywhere on the scale from brownies, to cookie bars, to crumble bars.
Crumble bars
So when it comes to these crumble bars, it is quite simple:
- Oats – for this bake, I wanted an oaty flavour to come through – I always recommend using rolled oats over porridge oats as they create a more consistent bake.
- Flour – an obvious one, but plain flour is a must! Self raising flour would create an odd texture
- Sugar – I decided to use light brown soft sugar, but this would work well with other sugars such as caster sugar, or even dark brown soft sugar.
- Raising agents – this one may sound a little odd, but trust me – you want the tiny lift from the baking powder (but not as much as self raising flour would produce)
- Butter – I use unsalted butter as always, but a salted butter would work well also. I would avoid any baking spreads of margarines as they are too soft for the crumble mixture.
Lemon filling
The lemon filling for these is a merge of a few recipes that have been posted over the last few years such as my lemon bars, as well as the lemon and blueberry tart. I wanted to make the filling as simple and delicious as possible, and also a filling that sets super well
- Condensed milk – I would say it’s important to use the full-fat and full-sugar version of the condensed milk so that the bake sets well
- Lemon Juice – I use fresh lemons so I use the juice of 3 medium/large sized lemons. If your lemons are smaller, use four
- Lemon zest – Same as above, I use 3 medium/large sized lemons, four smaller ones is best
These three ingredients are mixed together in a bowl until combined – the texture make look a little weird at first, but the lemon juice and zest will eventually combine with the condensed milk and make a thickened substance.
Assembly
These lemon crumble bars are super easy to put together. I start by rubbing together the crumble mixture with my fingers in a large bowl until it resembles a slightly wet sand like breadcrumb texture. I don’t use a food processor for this as you don’t want to lose the texture of the oats.
You tip 500g of this mixture into the base of your lined 9×9″ square tin and press down nice and firmly. After this you pour the lemon mixture on top and then sprinkle on the rest of the oat mixture and bake. It turns nice and golden in the oven and then after baking and cooling, the lemon mixture has set perfectly.
Tips & Tricks
- These lemon crumble bars will last in the fridge or room temperature on a cool day for 5-7 days
- These bars will freeze for 3+ months
- I recommend using rolled oats over porridge oats
- This is the 9″ square tin that I use in this recipe
- Find the raspberry version on my blog here
Lemon Crumble Bars!
Ingredients
Crumble
- 175 g rolled oats
- 200 g plain flour
- 150 g light brown soft sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 175 g unsalted butter (cold and cubed)
Filling
- 395 g condensed milk
- Juice of 3 lemons
- Zest of 3 lemons
Instructions
Crumble
- Preheat the oven to 200ºc/180ºfan and line a 9x9" square tin with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add the rolled oats, plain flour, light brown soft sugar, baking powder and unsalted butter.
- Rub the ingredients together with your fingers until the mixture resembles bread crumbs and there are no large lumps of butter left.
Filling
- In a new bowl, add the condensed milk, lemon juice and zest
- Mix together until combined
Assembly
- Pour 500g of the oaty crumble mix into the lined tin and press down firmly.
- Pour the filling onto of the oats, and spread.
- Sprinkle over the rest of the crumble mix
- Bake in the oven for 30+ minutes, or until golden and beautiful.
- Leave the bars to cool fully before portioning. Refrigerating them can sometimes make this easier.
Notes
- These lemon crumble bars will last in the fridge or room temperature on a cool day for 5-7 days
- These bars will freeze for 3+ months
- I recommend using rolled oats over porridge oats
- This is the 9" square tin that I use in this recipe
- Find the raspberry version on my blog here
ENJOY!
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J x
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please make more ice cream flavours, all of them are so good!
This is so yummy and moreish! Will make again for sure.
My only thing is that I think the juice from the 3 lemons was a bit much… it seems to have come out the oven and looks curdled when cut. It wasn’t split or curdled when it went into the oven. Regardless, it tasted good, next time I’ll just do the juice of 2 lemons and see what happens.
Question: It said to mix the base until it resembled fine breadcrumbs but mine kinda went into a clump, I used jumbo rolled oats so it was like a paste with oats (tasted blooming good), if it seemed to wet, should I have added more flour?
How did you mix the base? If you used a blended or sorts this could have caused this as it just needs to be done by hand! x
Hi Jane I’d like to make the lemon crumble bars. I’ve got porridge oats but it also says on the package that they are whole grain rolled porridge oats will they be ok to use.