Lemon Brownies

These Lemon Brownies are gooey and soft. They are tangy and sweet, with a delicious lemon glaze, bursting with lemon flavor! They have a chewy and fudgy texture, with the tart flavor of fresh lemons in a sweet and delicious dessert.

I will show you the step-by-step on making delicious Lemon Brownie Recipe.

It takes about 20 minutes to put this dessert together, plus the time in the oven, and in under one hour or so you can be enjoying these delicious brownies!

These Lemon Brownies have such a gooey texture. They are the perfect dessert for lemon lovers!

Let’s learn how to make them!

Lemon Brownie Recipe

Here are the ingredients you need to make this recipe:

• Lemon zest
• Granulated sugar
• White chocolate
• Butter
• Fresh lemon juice
• Eggs
• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Powdered sugar

How to make Lemon Brownies

Here are the instructions on making this recipe.

First and foremost, let’s make lemon sugar.

To make lemon sugar, simply add the lemon zest to the granulated sugar in a bowl, and rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers to help release the citrus oils from the zest.

Alternatively, you could process the sugar and lemon zest in the food processor a few times, that will also cause the oils in the lemon zest to be released and infused in the sugar.

Then mix the white chocolate with the butter, and melt in the microwave for 15 second intervals, whisking until completely melted.

Add the lemon sugar to the bowl.

It’s important to use good quality white chocolate. I used Lindt for this recipe. It will make a huge difference in the final results. You could use Callebaut, Valrhona, or even the white chocolate baking bars from the store. They will taste much better than most white chocolate chips sold at the store from Nestle or Ghirardelli, for example.

After whisking the sugar with the melted butter and white chocolate, add the eggs and whisk again.

Add the lemon juice and mix.

Next, add the flour and salt.

Don’t over mix the wet batter, mix just until combined and smooth.

We aren’t adding any leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda, because we are going for gooey brownies with that very characteristic fudginess. Adding a leavening agent would make the brownies have more of a cake like texture.

Prepare a 8×8″ pan by greasing it with cooking spray, or coating the sides with butter.

Once the batter is ready, pour it into the 8×8″ baking pan, and bake in the oven for about 35 minutes. The brownies are done baking when the top is set, and a toothpick inserted into the pan comes out clean.

Once the brownies are baked, make the glaze before serving.

Lemon Glaze

To make the glaze, simply whisk the powdered sugar and a couple tablespoons lemon juice together. Start by adding just one tablespoon, and add more as needed to thin out the consistency of the glaze.

Pour the glaze over the cooled down brownies.

You can add the zest to the glaze, or you can sprinkle the zest over the glazed brownies.

The glaze is sweet, tart, and will perfectly compliment the rich brownies.

Let the glaze set for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Tips for making the best Lemon Brownies

• Don’t skip making the lemon sugar, it takes just a couple of minutes and helps release so much lemon flavor into the brownies.
• It’s preferable to make these brownies by hand, using a whisk, over using an electric mixer. Because if you over mix the batter at any point, you can incorporate too much air into it. That can make the brownies to rise too quickly and too much in the oven as they bake, which will cause them to sink and deflate.
• Don’t over bake, or the brownies will turn out dry instead of gooey.
• Let the glaze set before slicing.
• Use good quality white chocolate.

What kind of pan to use

I used a 8×8″ baking pan. You can also use a round 8″ or 9″ pan.

To make this recipe in a 9×9″ pan, you will have to multiply each ingredient per 1.5. If you make just one single recipe, the batter will be too thin to be baked into the 9×9″ pan.

So since this recipe has 3 eggs, you would ultimately need 4.5 eggs. And it can be hard to calculate half of an egg. What I like to do is to break the egg, whisk it until the egg yolk and white are mixed together, weigh it, and then add half of the weight into the recipe, along with the other 4 eggs.

Lemon Brownie Variations

Here are some variations to this recipe, and different ways that you can mix it up:

• Use other citrus, such as orange or lime. Use orange zest, orange juice, or lime zest and lime juice instead of lemon.
• Add a dash of almond extract to the batter, 1/4 tsp will do. You can also add a teaspoon vanilla extract too if you so wish.
• Instead of topping the brownies with the glaze, top them with a dusting of powdered sugar, or melted white chocolate.
• Use gluten-free flour instead of regular all-purpose flour, to make these gluten free. Usually any 1-to-1 type of flour substitute will work.

Brownies, blondies or lemon bars

When I first made the Lemon Brownies, I was going back and forth between calling them lemon brownies, or lemon blondies. When I posted them on my instagram stories, some people suggested I’d call them “lemonies”, or even lemon bars.

Here is the thing, blondies don’t have chocolate in them, and lemon bars are an entirely different dessert.

For these to be lemon blondies, they would have to have brown sugar in the batter, and no white chocolate.

And for them to be lemon bars, they would have to feature a shortbread crust, and the filling on top would be made of eggs, sugar, and lemon juice mostly, no butter or white chocolate. Some lemon bars can also be made with sweetened condensed milk too (my personal favorite way of making them).

So brownies is the title that fits them better. But I can also get totally on board with calling them Lemonies.

If you like lemon desserts, you might also enjoy these recipes:

• Lemon Curd
• Limoncello Tiramisu
• Lemon Cookies
• Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes
• Coconut Lemon Cake
• Lemon Cheesecake
• Lemon Pie

Thanks for reading! If you make this recipe tag me on instagram or leave a comment below, I love hearing from you!

Lemon Brownies

Camila Hurst

These Lemon Brownies are gooey and soft. They are tangy and sweet, with a delicious lemon glaze, bursting with lemon flavor!

4.88 from 8 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

0 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16 slices

Calories 220 kcal

Ingredients

  

Lemon Brownies

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar 300 grams
• 3 tbsp lemon zest
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter 170 grams
• 1 cup chopped white chocolate 170 grams
• 3 large eggs room temperature
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 287 grams
• 1/4 tsp salt

Lemon Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar 125 grams
• 1-3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp lemon zest

Instructions

 

Lemon Brownies

• Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF.
• Grease and line a 8×8” square pan with parchment paper.
• Start by adding the sugar and the zest to a bowl. Rub the sugar and the zest between your fingers. When you do that, the crystals in the sugar will help the lemon zest release the natural oils, infusing the sugar with the citrus flavor.
• Add the chopped white chocolate and the butter to a large mixing bowl. Place in the microwave until the chocolate and butter melt together, for 15 second intervals. Whisk until smooth.
• Add the lemon sugar to the butter and white chocolate, whisk until combined.
• Add the eggs and whisk.
• Next add the lemon juice and mix to combine.
• Add the flour and salt. Whisk until a smooth batter is formed.
• Pour the batter in the prepared pan.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes, or until the top of the brownie is set. A toothpick inserted into the brownies should come off with no moist crumbs attached.
• Let the brownies cool down for about 20 minutes.

Lemon Glaze

• Place the powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice in. Start by adding one tablespoon, and add more as needed.
• Simply pour the glaze on top of the brownies, and spread with a spatula.
• You can add the lemon zest to the glaze, or sprinkle the zest on top of the glazed brownies.
• Let the glaze set before slicing and serving, should take about 10 or 15 minutes.

Storage

• Store the brownies in an airtight container. It can stay in the counter overnight. If storing longer than 2 days, store in the fridge and let it come to room temperature before serving.

Notes

Variations:

• almond extract– you can add a dash of almond extract to the batter, 1/4 tsp will do.
• citrus variations– you can use other citrus such as orange or limes for the recipe.
• powdered sugar– leave the glaze out and sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the brownies.

Pan size: This recipe works best in a 8×8″ pan. You could use a round 9″ or 8″ pan instead.

If you want to use a 9×9″ pan, I recommend you multiply all ingredients by 1.5, otherwise the brownie will be super thin.

Lemon sugar: Instead of rubbing the sugar and lemon between your fingers, you could process the sugar and lemon zest in the food processor a few times.

White chocolate: It’s important to use good quality white chocolate. I used Lindt for this recipe. It will make a huge difference in the final results. You could use Callebaut, Valrhona, or even the white chocolate baking bars from the store. They will taste much better than most white chocolate chips sold at the store from Nestle or Ghirardelli, for example. However, don’t let that stop you from making the recipe. If that’s all you have access to, go ahead and use it.

Keyword brownies, lemon