I love lemon. And lime. And pretty much all things citrus. This time of year, when the days are short and the temperatures drop, the color and brightness that citrus brings is not something I take for granted. These Paleo and Nut-Free Lemon Bars are just the thing to wake up your taste buds and add a little brightness to your chilly winter day!
Lemon Bars (Paleo & Nut-Free )
Ten years ago, I would have told you in no uncertain terms that I am absolutely not a baker. “I’m a chef, not a baker” is something I was known to say when someone asked me to make cookies or cakes or anything that required actual measuring.
But when I decided to go mostly Paleo, that all changed out of the need for the perfect baked goods; suddenly, if I wanted them, I had to figure out how to make them. I came up with a grain-free flour blend that I love for things like Chocolate Cake and Coffee Cake and Muffins, but it was almond flour based, which doesn’t help those in the community who are nut-free. When Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour came on the scene a few years back, the game changed. In many cases, I’ve had the best results when it’s blended with another starch or flour, but for something like these lemon bars, it’s the only flour necessary for both the crust and the filling. Same goes for this Pot Pie, which has an unbelievably flaky and delicate crust- the perfect topper for the hearty filling.
I think I’m getting the hang of this baking thing. 
If you’re dusting them with powdered sugar, do so right before serving
Paleo & Nut-Free Lemon Bars
the best lemon bars, that happen to be paleo and nut-free!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 bars
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
for the crust:
- 1 cup / 140 grams Otto’s Naturals cassava flour ((if not weighing, whisk your flour before scooping))
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest ((make sure to zest before juicing!))
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 6 tablespoons butter, (or cold ghee or palm shortening)
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 egg white ((reserve the yolk for the filling))
for the filling:
- 1 egg yolk
- 4 whole eggs
- ½ cup lemon juice, or lime, or a combo ((make sure to zest before juicing!))
- 1 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 3 tablespoons Otto’s Naturals cassava flour
- powdered sugar for dusting, (optional)
Instructions
Make the Crust:
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF and grease an 8×8 baking dish. Line with parchment paper and then grease the parchment. (see photos below)
- In the bowl of your food processor, pulse the cassava flour, lemon zest, and sea salt a couple of times to mix.
- Add the butter and pulse 8-10 times, or until the mixture is the texture of coarse crumbs.
- Add the honey and egg white and turn it on for a few seconds, so the mixture just starts to come together. Scrape down the sides and turn on again, until the mixture comes together into a ball. (Alternately, if you don’t have a food processor, you can cut in the butter with a pastry cutter and mix in the remaining ingredients by hand.)
- Press the dough into the prepared pan, bringing the sides up about an inch.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until it’s just dry to the touch.
Meanwhile make the filling:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the filling ingredients.
- Make sure the filling is well blended, and then pour the filling into the warm par-baked crust. Return to the oven for 18-22 minutes, until just set.
- Allow to cool completely before using the parchment to pull it out of the pan. Cut as desired and dust with powdered sugar, if using.
How to line a pan with parchment wrinkle-free:
Thank you, Otto’s Naturals, for sponsoring this post!
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Donna in Inwood says
So I’m a longtime fan just giving you some feedback for however it may be useful to you.
I was surprised to see the recipe call for a whole cup of honey. That seemed like a huge amount of sweet.
But — the one thing I always admire about your dessert recipes is that they usually DON’T overkill the sweetness.
So I put in one whole cup. I’m sorry I did that. I should have started with two-thirds of a cup and tasted it, but I didn’t. Once I had all the filling ingredients in the bowl, and tasted it, I could see it was going to be waaay too sweet for me. I added some additional lemon juice and some some salt, which helped a little. But not enough.
I’m not sure we can eat this. I think it’s a nice idea — sort of an eggy lemon custard — but my suggestion would be to advise folks that they can start with less honey and add more to taste.
Thanks as always for an interesting recipe!
zenbelly says
Thanks, Donna. These lemon bars still have WAY less sugar than the typical lemon bar, and because lemon is so sour, they need a good amount of sweetness to balance them out. I have made them countless times, fed them to tons of people, and they’ve always been a huge hit, no one has ever said they were too sweet. They’re a dessert, not supposed to be savory 🙂 But it’s good for you to know that you need to cut back on the sugar in every recipe you make!
Donna in Inwood says
Thanks for your reply. I’m one of your regular customers — I have a couple of your cookbooks, I’ve made lots of your desserts and also left lots of comments (most recently, I think, on the recipe for plum torte).
What I was trying to convey was that a typical Simone Miller dessert has a moderate level of sweetness, which always works for me.
This recipe differs from your usual — it’s waaaay farther on the sweet spectrum. I knew that one cup was a lot of honey, but what I didn’t know was how much lemon juice it would take to bring that much honey into balance. So I couldn’t tell from just looking at the ingredient list what was going to happen.
As a regular user, I was expecting a Simon Miller usual – -a moderately sweet dessert. This was not at all what I expected. That’s all I’m trying to say in these comments. It might be helpful to your regulars to say somewhere in the recipe notes that this one is sweeter than many other zenbelly desserts.
And yes, I am aware that dessert recipes are generally in the sweet category and not in the savory one. But thanks for pointing it out.
zenbelly says
Thanks for the continued support, Donna. I’m definitely familiar with your comments! I never post a recipe that I don’t believe is perfect but everyone has different tastes and there’s always going to be at least one person who’s not happy. Sorry that was you this time.
T.C. says
I’m a huge fan of yours Simone, but I mostly make your savory recipes. Recently I’ve tried two of your casava flour recipes (cinnamon rolls last week, lemon bars this weekend) and am now going to buy your ebook w additional Casa a flour recipes. Loved the cinnamon rolls, and… the lemon bars! It’s been years since I’ve had a lemon bar, this recipe makes me so happy. The sweetness perfectly harmonizes with the tartness, they’re even better than I hoped they would be. Thank you 🙂
zenbelly says
Thanks so much, Tanya! I’m really glad to hear that 🙂
Gayle says
Hello, I’m looking forward to trying this and wondering about how best to make ahead and store. Thank you!
zenbelly says
Hi Gayle! They should be good for about two days in the fridge, tightly covered. Just make sure they’re fully cooled before you wrap and refrigerate them.
Gayle says
I ended up making them this morning for tonight and had to taste one (ok two) – they are so delicious! Thank you!
zenbelly says
Gotta do that quality control 😉 So glad you love them!
Tiffany Valvo says
You are just the best. These are – like always – perfect. Thank you for your creativity and your work!
zenbelly says
Aw thanks Tiffany! So glad you loved them.
Linda White says
I will try this soon. It would be helpful to know that tapioca flour is cassava flour. My daughter in law recently taught me how to cook yuca
which is cassava or tapioca in a flour.
zenbelly says
I hope you love them, Linda!
And they are from the same plant, yes. Most often when it’s called tapioca flour, it’s tapioca starch, and cassava flour is the whole root dried and ground. So they don’t act exactly the same in recipes.
Kristen says
Do any of the Ingredients need to be room temp or cold for the recipe to set up properly? Also, if I use palm shortening for the dough will that make it less flavorful?
zenbelly says
butter / ghee / palm shortening should be cold. Butter tends to have more flavor than palm shortening, so you won’t get that buttery flavor, but they’ll still be good and lemony!