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!
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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.
Your oven should be at 350ºF if it’s a regular conventional oven. If your oven runs hot, or if it’s convection or gas, use 325ºF instead.
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
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. (see notes about the oven temperature)
- 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
- 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.
Absolutely delish!! I’d say even better next/3rd day. My sons (14 & 17) weren’t sold on them at first, once the glaze set and chilled they LOVED them. In fact making them again this weekend. This time I’m going to experiment with raspberries. Fresh whole rasp pressed in the batter & a compote swirled in the glaze is the idea, fingers crossed it works out.
Mine inflated like a balloon, toasted on the top, still raw in the middle and boiled over onto the bottom of my oven…. -_-
Put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes and it got to a gooey consistency. Glazed it and it tasted great but man, something went wrong….
Huh that is odd! I’m sorry they didn’t work for you. Do you have an oven thermometer to be able to tell if your oven temperature is accurate? Sounds like the oven temp may be too low. Also make sure to use a metal pan for more consistent heat.
Mine turned out very dry and cake like and I think there is too much flour. My other favourite normal brownie recipe uses only 85g of flour and 40g of cocoa so 125g of dry ingredients all together and they turn out beautifully-moist. I think I will try these again because the flavour is great but I’m going to halve the flour.
I’ve just relooked at the recipe and there is a typo in there. You say 2 1/4 cups of flour but the grams says 287g. I think you mean 1 1/4 cups – will try it like that next time!
There’s no typo. Those are the accurate measurements. I mean 2.25 cups of flour which equals 287 grams. One cup of flour has about 127 grams.
I’ve made these twice and they’re phenomenal. So moist, so lemony. They have the texture of a brownie but are so bright and tart and sweet.
These were a hit at a party. Very moist and flavourful.
I’m not crazy about the microwave method so I just used a double boiler for melting the chocolate and butter. Worked just fine.
I’ve made this recipe twice unfortunately I didn’t see the comments above about no glass pan. Can I use a metal 9×9” pan? My oven runs hot. What temperature and for how long should I bake it. The flavor is amazing but both times my edges were browned and unbaked in the middle.
Yes you can use a 9×9″ metal pan. If your oven runs hot, perhaps turn the temp down to 325F, and bake slowly, at that temperature it could take even 50 minutes. Just keep checking after about 30 or 35 minutes, touch the top of the brownie in the center, and should feel somewhat firm, not very firm, should still be a bit jiggly, but you should feel like it’s firming up, and not completely soft and liquidy. When you touch the top of the brownie in the center and look for those queues, youll know what im talking about. If needed even cover the pan with foil during the final 15 minutes of baking, so the brownie has a chance to cook in the middle and not over bake the edges.
BEST
DESSERT
OF
MY
LIFE!
Thank you!!!!
Tasty but the middle comes out a gooey mess as well. Second time I have baked this and the second time was worse than the first. The taste is good. I did use a glass pan. Next time will try baking it at a higher temperature and longer before taking it out.
I recommend not using a glass pan.
Baking these as I type. Very anxious as I must’ve missed the mention of using a metal pan? 🤔 I used 1 bar of Lindt White Chocolate, not quite a cup chopped up? Hope it’s enough. My husband was drooling over the lemon sugar and can hardly wait to eat the “brownies”. 🤞🤞
So one bar of white lindt is be 125 grams and the recipe calls for 170 grams. I hope it worked out tho! Let me know how it goes!!!
This recipe deserves more love and ratings!!! 100/10 will be baking again this weekend!
Awesome I am so happy to hear that! Thank you
White Chocolate, sweetened? Unsweetened? Can you be more specific?
I have never seen unsweetened white chocolate. yes its sweetened white chocolate
Absolutely delicious. I made this before reading the comments and used a glass pan, as it was the only 8 x 8 that I had 🤦♀️ (I’ll be shopping for a metal one next time I’m at the store!). I had to bake it 15 extra minutes and the brownies were very thick. But I can’t stop eating them! I’m going to try making this with oranges once I buy a new pan. Every one of your recipes I’ve tried had been wonderful!
These were very good. I made them with gluten free flour.
oh nice to know it works with gluten free flour also! thank you!
What if my pan’s 5.9 inches and round? In that case, I need to leave it in the oven for longer, right? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I am merely a beginner at baking :))
If the pan is smaller, and the batter will be taller, then yes gotta bake longer! No such thing as a stupid question when it comes to baking! 🙂 ask away!! Hope it works.
Make sure when you touch the top is not soggy before removing from the oven
Hi! I tried this recipe and followed everything to a T. I even had to bake it a little bit longer and it came out super runny in the middle and the outsides were cooked perfectly. Any reason that would happen? It’s delicious I wish it would’ve worked out! I’m hoping to try it again!
That would happen because of under baking.
Also, don’t use a glass pan.