Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars are bursting with luscious lemon curd and juicy blueberries. This recipe will be the star of all of your summer parties. A word of warning: You will want to eat each and every melt-in-your-mouth-AND-in-your-hands bar all by yourself!
Sooo… Butter is my favorite ingredient. Or food? Does it count as an entire food all by itself? If you’ve eaten it all alone with a spoon before (not that I have done this!), does it count as a food? (No really, I swear I haven’t done this. Have I been tempted? Yes.) I’m only asking if it counts as a food because, if so, butter and chocolate chip cookies are in a tight race.
In fact, Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars and Jacque Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies are in a tight race. I have proclaimed my infallible love for JT’s cookies for years now, but serve them to me on a silver platter next to Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars and I won’t know which to choose first. More challenging is that I won’t know which to choose last! Which flavor do I want to linger?
Which makes me think that my next big dessert experiment should be something like Chocolate Chip Cookie Shortbread Bars. And that shouldn’t be too hard because this recipe is kitchen experimentation-friendly. (Yes, that’s a thing or at least it is now.)
Here’s what I mean: I took the shortbread crust from my recipe for Caramel Apple Butter Bars (↓ look familiar?) and I switched out the filling.
Obviously, the original recipe has a caramel apple filling. To make Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars, I made a lemon curd (LOVE! Can we be British for a month or so and have tea and eat English scones and spread them with lemon curd #allthetime?), folded in blueberries, and put that right between the shortbread crust and the shortbread crumble. And PSA: The shortbread crust and the shortbread crumble are the same thing — You just divide the dough and do two different things with it, so it’s not extra work.
The end result is a sturdy twice-baked shortbread crust that is bursting with creamy, luscious lemon curd and juicy blueberries and finished with a softer, butteryer (it’s a word, yep), melt-in-your-mouth-and-in-your-hands-and-in-your-belly shortbread topping. Quite honestly, you need to have plans for these. If you don’t, you are likely going to eat them all yourself and, I dunno, if you’re like me, maybe that will make you a little proud.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Shortbread Bars Coming Soon.
Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars
Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars are bursting with luscious lemon curd and juicy blueberries. This recipe will be the star of all of your summer parties. A word of warning: You will want to eat each and every melt-in-your-mouth-AND-in-your-hands bar all by yourself!
Ingredients
For the shortbread crust:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Zest of one lemon
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
For the filling:
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into smaller pieces
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 1 1/4 cup blueberries divided
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8×8″ or 9×9″ baking pan with foil. Leave an overhang on the sides. Set aside.
To make the shortbread crust:
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In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and powered sugar. Add vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and beat until well-combined. Mix in flour to form a soft dough. Press 2/3 of the dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan to form a crust. Reserve the other 1/3 portion of dough in the refrigerator. Bake 15-18 minutes while you prepare the filling.
To make the filling:
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In a medium saucepan whisk together egg yolks, whole egg, and sugar until combined. Add lemon juice and salt and whisk until well combined, about 30 seconds. Place over medium-low heat and add butter. Cook, stirring constantly, until the curd thickens, about 6 minutes. Once thickened, stir in Greek yogurt. Fold in 1 cup blueberries, then pour the curd into the warm crust, spreading evenly.
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Sprinkle the bars with remaining 1/4 cup blueberries and crumble the remaining crust evenly on top. Return to the oven and bake another 25-30 minutes or until filling is bubbly. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Best stored in the refrigerator.
I LOVE lemon curd. The lemon blueberry combo is ALWAYS a hit. Shortbread is so good, but most people only make it during the holidays. Since blueberries are my favourite berry, LEMON anything is on the top of my list…and shortbread is divine….these are a winner. Perfect to take to a potluck…awesome for entertaining. I have printed out the recipe.
Thanks so much, Gloria! Lemon Blueberry is one of my favorite combinations, for sure! I also love Lemon Blueberry Pancakes! (These are better than pancakes for summer BBQs though ;-)…)
THis is my kind of dessert! Nothing like blueberries! This looks so fluffy and moist, nothing like a good shortbread to start summer!
You forgot “buttery.” 🙂
You had me at Lemon Blueberry… my favorite combo! These look delicious!!!! So excited!
I’m also a huge lemon-blueberry fan!
I love lemon, I love blueberries and I love shortbread. So I’m positive I would love these cookies.
They are hard NOT to love!
What a delicious shortbread recipe, I love the idea of blueberries with the lemon curd on top of buttery shortbread and topped with it too, yum!
Thanks Sarah! You can stick anything you want between the shortbreads. I’ve done caramel apple in the past!
Nice to find a fellow butter lover! These sound so yummy and I’m sure they will be perfect for the bake sale at school. I’m going to check out the caramel apple bars too!
Oh yea! I love the idea of contributing to a bake sale. They will SELL OUT! So much better than your run-of-the-mill baked goods. 🙂
Oh my gawd! These look like my new favourite dessert! When I saw shortbread I was hooked and then you go and add blueberry and lemon?! Done, these are next on my list to make for sure! YUM
You MUST! A winner for sure! Thanks for visiting, Melissa. 🙂
This dessert is an amazing combination of flavors. Wonderful.
Thanks, Lynne! Lemon + blueberry is always good!
These sound amazing! I love lemony desserts!
Me too! Classic Lemon Bars are always awesome too!
Yummy! I would eat the whole pan, haha. Butter is your favorite ingredient too? LOL. These look too good to share. Delicious!
I would have eaten the whole pan too. Thankfully, I have helpful friends.
Hi there, I plan to make this today for a friend’s birthday. I was wondering if I goild use parchment paper instead of foil. I wise a gas oven and sometimes I realise that the foil makes my bakes brown a bit too quickly.
Please excuse my typos.
Hi there, I plan to make this today for a friend’s birthday. I was wondering if I could use parchment paper instead of foil. I use a gas oven and sometimes I realise that the foil makes my bakes brown a bit too quickly.
Hi Yvonne,
Using parchment would be just fine! Let me know how they turn out!
I have made this 3 times now and they are absolutely amazing. I paired them with homemade vanilla custard! It’s out of this world! Thank you for sharing such am amazing recipe
VANILLA CUSTARD! Now I need to get your recipes for THAT!
This looks so delicious! I have a lot of store bought lemon curd that I am trying to get rid of and was wondering if I could use that in place of making it from scratch. If so, how much do I use?
Hi Anna, Absolutely substitute your store-bought lemon curd! The lemon curd in my recipe above yields about 1 cup. I would start with about 2/3 cup and spread it evenly in the 9×9 or 8×8 pan. You’ll have to use your judgement to add the last 1/3 cup. Good luck. I’d love to hear how it turns out! Tag me on Instagram @theeverykitchen!
Perfect! So then I just need to add the greek yogurt and blueberries to the lemon curd?
I made these delicious Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars! They taste AWESOME! The only thing I did differently was to also add some extra lemon zest on top of the remaining crumble before I baked it!😘
Hi Kathy,
I’m so pleased you enjoyed them! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know!
HI- if I want to make this using store-bought curd, do I still need to add the greek yogurt? Thank you!
Hi Brooklyn, Nope, you don’t need too. However, either way won’t change the recipe too much!
Can I use frozen blueberries? If so, would I need to thaw them?
Hi Tabitha, You can almost always use frozen blueberries in place of fresh ones when baking. No thawing required!
Thinking about making these but trying to figure out how you get 16 bars out of a 8 x 8 pan?
That would be simple! Cut each side into fours. They will be 2-inch squares.