The absolute best testing vegan lemon bars are the perfect balance of tart and sweet. Just 11 ingredients and done in under 45 minutes.
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Lemon flavored desserts are one of those things people either love or don’t. No matter which category you are in, I think these vegan lemon bars could change your mind.
They are absolutely delicious!
A thick and creamy, tart lemon center is on top of a delicious cookie bread base for a crust and then topped with sweet powdered sugar. It’s absolutely divine.
Most of the time here is spent either mixing something together or baking, and neither one is hard to do, making it the perfect recipe year round. However, it’s especially good in warmer months.
What ingredients do you need to make dairy free lemon bars?
There are two parts to this recipe, the cookie crust and the lemony filling.
For the crust, we need:
- Vegan butter
- Vegan sugar
- Maple syrup
- Flour
- Sea salt
- Vanilla extract
For the lemon filling, we need:
- Lemon juice
- Arrowroot powder
- Coconut milk
- Vegan sugar
- Lemon zest
- Lemon extract
- Vanilla extract
- Sea salt
Powdered sugar is also needed for topping.
How do you make vegan lemon bars?
First, you want to turn your oven on to 350˚F. Next, you will oil a 9×13 pan. You can do this with coconut oil or vegan butter, etc.
In a bowl, you are going to mix together melted butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and maple syrup. Add in your flour and stir to combine it well.
This is going to be your cookie base. You want to now add it to your greased pan and even it out into one layer.
Bake this cookie minutes for approximately 15-20 minutes. You want the edges to be slightly brown.
After 10 minutes has passed while that is cooking, add lemon juice and zest, coconut cream, sugar, lemon extract, vanilla and salt to a pan over medium heat. Whisk this together until well combined.
Once combined, add in the arrowroot powder and cook until it’s like, like a gravy almost.
When finished, remove the cookie base from the oven and spread the mixture over top. Even out using a spatula.
Place your pan back into the oven for 15 more minutes. Pull it out and allow to cool completely on a baking rack.
Once cooled, add your powdered sugar on top using a sifter. Serve or place in the fridge in prepping ahead.
*Note: If prepping ahead, don’t add the powdered sugar until ready to serve or the juiciness from the lemon will absorb it.
CAN I MAKE THIS TOP 8 ALLERGEN FRIENDLY LEMON BARS?
We have not tested this recipe to be top 8 allergen friendly at this time, but can make a few suggestions.
The ingredients that we need to think about is the vegan butter, flour, and coconut milk.
Vegan butter usually contains soy, but this is an easy swap with just needing to use a soy free vegan butter. We prefer Earth Balance soy free for this swap.
If you have a gluten allergy, you will want to swap the flour. While we haven’t tried, we would recommend King Arthur’s Measure for Measure flour. We have found this works best in recipes.
The coconut cream is a bit tougher because we are using the thickness here to help our mixture.
My recommendation would be to cream together some vegan cream cheese together with a little dairy free milk of choice until you get the consistency of coconut cream.
Or, you could mix your favorite dairy free milk with some arrowroot powder in a sauce pan until you get a thick mixture.
We will update the post when we have tried it.
WHAT OTHER VEGAN DESSERTS SHOULD I TRY?
Other delicious vegan desserts that you may want to try would be:
- Dairy Free Apple Pie
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Easy Vegan Peach Cobbler
- Vegan M&M Rice Krispies
- Vegan Lemon Pound Cake
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
See all of our vegan desserts on our website for even more inspiration.
Pin these vegan lemon bars for later:
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Lemon Bars
Ingredients
For the Cookie Crust
- ¾ cup vegan butter, melted
- ¼ cup vegan sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups flour
For the Lemon Filling
- 4 tablespoon lemon zest (about 4-5 lemons)
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons)
- ½ cup coconut cream (the thick part from a can of coconut cream – sub with a sweet non-dairy yogurt)
- 1 cup vegan sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup cornstarch (can sub with arrowroot powder)
- powdered sugar for the top
Instructions
For the Cookie Crust
- Turn oven to 350˚F. Grease a 9×13 pan. Set aside.
- Whisk together melted butter, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt together in a bowl. Add the flour and combine.
- Pour dough into greased pan and even it out in the pan with a spatula. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until edges are turning golden brown.
For the Lemon Filling
- After 10 minutes of the crust cooking, to a saucepan add lemon zest, lemon juice, coconut cream, sugar, lemon extract, vanilla extract, and salt. Turn heat on medium and whisk together until well combined and all the sugar as dissolved.
- While constantly whisking, pour in cornstarch and quickly work to dissolve at the powder. Whisk until gravy starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon/spatula. Don't overheat or it will get too thick.
- Remove cookie base from the oven and adding the lemon mixture over top and spread into an even layer carefully with a spatula. Place back in the oven and allow to cook for another 15 minutes.
- Pull out and allow to cool completely on a baking rack. Once cooled add powdered sugar over top using a sifter to serve immediately. Or store in fridge until ready to serve and do not add powdered sugar until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Hey!
If I were to sub for non dairy yogurt, what flavor would work best? Vanilla? Cirtrus? Plain?
We’ve used vanilla, but I think a citrus would be fun too!
I cast my vote for 🍋 love!
This treat was even more special after days of temperatures below 20°F and hours shoveling ice snow and snow.
Thank you Larisha & Andrew 💛
Awww thank you so much! We’re so glad these worked as a great reward for all the hard work shoveling the snow. Thank you for giving the recipe a try!
Hello,
I was wondering could I sub oatmilk for the coconut?
Yes but coconut has more fat. It would change the texture and may feel thinner. They would need a full fat oat milk and maybe even a bit more cornstarch. We haven’t tested this to tell for sure
I want to try this recipe but it’s really unclear how much coconut cream to use. You say a can, but just the top part of it? What I was hoping to do is substitute silken tofu for the coconut milk. How much should I use? It’s supposed to be a 1:1 ratio, so that’s easy.
Thank you
1/2 cup, so sorry for the confusion
Can you please advise how much coconut cream is used off the top of the can as it seems to vary. Thank you!
Sorry about that, 1/2 cup
I made these, and they are amazing! I halved the sugar in the filling. These make so many (I cut them in smaller bits), but they went so fast. Thank you!
So delicious! My entire family loved them!
We’re so excited that your family loved them! We appreciate you taking time to leave a review, have a great day!