Lightened-up creamy lemon goodness!
Today I’m sharing a recipe for tangy Greek yogurt lemon bars. A recipe yielding 12 larger squares, all at only 130 calories each. With enough flavor, buttery graham cracker crust action, and healthy protein to keep you satisfied, which—let’s face it—is not typical for light desserts.
First thing to know is that these Greek yogurt lemon bars are not super sweet. I reduced the sugar from traditional lemon bar/cheesecake bar recipes to a scant 1/3 cup for the entire pan of bars. What you’ll really taste is that tart lemon flavor and tangy Greek yogurt.
The crust for today’s lemon bars is the same I use for my light chocolate chip cheesecake bars and light raspberry swirl cheesecake bars. You’ll need 6 full sheet graham crackers and 2 Tablespoons of melted butter. I’ve made this crust with melted coconut oil and it’s still perfection. You want to use a fat that is solid at room temperature because it helps keep the crust intact. So butter or coconut oil, your choice.
Let’s talk about that lusciously creamy lemon filling. It’s a total breeze, made from only 6 simple ingredients: plain Greek yogurt, cream cheese, eggs, lemons, sugar, and vanilla extract. Make sure you are using Greek yogurt. You need very thick and rich yogurt for today’s lemon bars. My preferred brand is FAGE, but I’ve also had success with Chobani. The filling will not set without a thick-style yogurt. I always use nonfat.
Likewise, the filling won’t appropriately set without the eggs or brick-style cream cheese—the kind that is sold in a brick. Do not use cream cheese spread or whipped cream cheese. I use reduced fat brick-style cream cheese.
Bake the lemon bars at a low temperature to prevent the top from browning and to really cook that filling on the inside.
Bake until the middle is no longer super wobbly. A little jiggle is ok—the bars will continue to set up as they chill in the refrigerator, so you don’t need to bake them until the center is rock solid! Don’t overbake these bars, or the surface may crack.
Other Healthier Baking Recipes
- Morning Glory Muffins or Healthy Apple Muffins
- Baked Oatmeal
- Bran Muffins
- How to Make Granola Clusters
- Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
- No-Bake Greek Yogurt Fruit Tart
Don’t miss my roundup of 20+ healthy dessert recipes for even more inspiration!
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Greek Yogurt Lemon Bars
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 squares
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Lightened-up lemon goodness in this easy recipe for protein-packed 130 calorie greek yogurt lemon bars!
Ingredients
Crust
- 3/4 cup (85g) graham cracker crumbs (about 5–6 full sheet graham crackers)
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)
Filling
- 6 ounces (170g) reduced fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (181g) plain nonfat or low fat Greek yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature*
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature*
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)*
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional: top with fresh fruit when serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F (149°C). Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment, leaving an overhang on all sides to easily lift the bars out of the pan before cutting. Set aside.
- Make the crust: Mix the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter together in a medium bowl until combined. Evenly press crust into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Make the filling: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on high speed until completely smooth, about 1 minute. On medium-high speed, beat in yogurt until completely combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula and beat again as needed to combine and no lumps remain. Then beat in the eggs and egg yolk until combined. Finally, beat in the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract until everything is combined and no lumps remain.
- Pour filling onto the crust. Bake for 34–38 minutes or until the middle is no longer super wobbly. A little jiggle is ok—the bars will continue to set up as they chill in the refrigerator, so you don’t need to bake them until the center is rock solid! Don’t overbake these bars, or the surface may crack. Allow the bars to cool at room temperature set on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 3-4 hours or even overnight.
- Once chilled, lift the foil out of the pan using the overhang on the sides and cut into squares. For neat squares, I use a very sharp knife and wipe it clean with a paper towel after each cut. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare the bars 1-3 days in advance and store covered tightly in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8-inch Square Pan or 9-inch Square Pan | Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowl | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester
- Eggs: You will need 2 large eggs plus an additional egg yolk making a total of 3 egg yolks and 2 egg whites.
- Lime Bars: Instead of lemon juice and lemon zest, try lime juice and lime zest for a tangy lime bar instead.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Room temperature dairy and eggs mix easily and more evenly into one another. I always recommend room temperature, especially cream cheese, when making these types of bars.
- Nutrition Information: Using SparkRecipes calculator, these bars come out to 130 calories, 6g fat, 13g carbs, 4g protein each. This is using Philadelphia light cream cheese, FAGE nonfat plain Greek yogurt, and Nabisco graham crackers.
Is their a way to adjust the recipe for diabetic people?
Hi Diana, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
This was given a big thumbs down by my family. I tried.
I would like to know whether you have a particular tip in order for the eggs not to smell. I have faced the same issue with the lemon custard too, otherwise these two recipes are great!
Hi Eve, when recipes like this one (and lemon bars and lemon curd, too), they can take on an eggy taste if they are over baked. For next time, try removing the bars from the oven a minute or two earlier. Hope this helps!
Could I use vanilla Greek yogurt? Thank you
Absolutely.
So amazing! And lower calorie than other recipes! Wow! So creamy and lemony and dreamy. I didn’t have grahams so I used vanilla wafers, so yummy. Thanks for a great recipe.
These tasted really good!!! However – they took a WHOPPING 40 mins longer to bake and when I took the pan out finally (after checking every 5 mins), it still had a good jiggle in the middle. But they set up just fine overnight. Mind you – I bake almost every day and have never once had to adjust my cooking time/temp for a recipe so I’m not sure what happened here. But like I said, they taste really good so worth the extra time.
I made this recipie and really enjoyed it! However, I really like lemon, when I make lemon things I want the lemon-ness to really punch me in the mouth. Is there anything I can do to make this more lemony? I tried increasing the amount of zest but that just wasn’t enough. Could I maybe make a reduction of a larger quantity of lemon juice? Or perhaps use lemon essence? I’ve never used it before so I’m unsure if thats the taste I’m going for, or how much to use.
Hi EJ, additional lemon zest would be our first recommendation. You could also try adding in lemon essence or lemon extract — exact amount would depend on how much flavor you’re looking for. We’d recommend starting small (as the extract and essence can be quite potent) and adjusting for future batches as you see fit. Glad you’ve been enjoying these bars!
Made twice, following recipe exactly and definitely not over-baking and both times it cracked all over with deep fissures. Tasted ok but looked terrible. I make a lot of cheesecakes/bars and have never had one crack so badly.
I plan to make these tomorrow but I want to use Nilla Waffles for the crust instead of Gram Crackers. Your thoughts?
The same amount of crushed vanilla wafers should work well. Let us know how it goes!
I loved this recipe and so did everyone that ate it! I was wondering if anyone has tried making it with oranges or strawberries? Thank you for posting this it’s now included in my favorite recipes!
Hi Marie! Orange should work just fine, swapping for orange juice and zest. A strawberry version would take a bit of recipe testing, as they have so much added liquid and could impact how the bars set. Let us know what you try!
These were a hit with my family on Easter. The bars are nice and tart, just the way we like our desserts. My only change for future makes would be to increase the crust ingredients by 50%. Just a bit more depth to the bottom layer would be helpful in keeping the bars stable for serving. For those of you who think it needs more baking time, it does not. I guess we all have different views of what “no more jiggle” means but a little wobble is fine. Don’t bake these until the top is solid and unmoving.
Outstanding. Would add even more zest though
Could you bake these in a springform pan to look like a round cheesecake?
Hi Natalie, We haven’t tested it but you certainly can. An 8 inch round pan would be best or the bars would be very thin.
I made these yesterday and they are pretty good! It’s basically a super sour lemon cheesecake. The texture is wonderful. I think these would be better with something sweeter on top- maybe whipped cream?
Such a great recipe. I made both lemon and lime and they’ve been such a hit! Now that it’s fall I’m wondering if I can swap in some pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice instead of the lemon juice and zest to give a low calorie version of a pumpkin cheesecake bar. Any suggestions on quantities or if this would work? Thanks!
Hi John! We haven’t tested that particular combination so can’t offer any advice – it would take some testing. You may love our skinny pumpkin cheesecake brownies, though!
The 130 calorie Greek yogurt bars would tasty, but there were some mistakes in the recipe. The recipe called for a bake at 300°F for 28-32 minutes. This was very incorrect. I baked these for more than fifty minutes. In addition, the Graham crackers did not fill completely in my 8×8 pan.
All in all, the bars were fun to make and tasted nice. As a new baker, I learned to read the comments for tips and troubles. I’ll probably make them again with a few changes lol 🙂
These are wonderful but I did have to bake them longer. I used a glass pan. If I used the whole bar of cream cheese, how would I adjust the eggs?
Hi Judy, each oven can be different and glass pans tend to take a bit longer to bake through, so no worries that yours took a few minutes longer. For best results, we don’t recommend using the full block of cream cheese — it would take some recipe testing to guarantee results and determine new amounts of the other ingredients. Glad you enjoyed this recipe!
My bars cracked has they cooled. They still tasted good. But was wondering what caused it. I followed directions to a tee.
Hi Patricia, thank you for giving these bars a try! We usually don’t encounter cracking with these cheesecake bars, is it possible they could be over-baked? Try reducing the time slightly next time – just until the center no longer jiggles.
Hey Sally! I’m planning to make these for a bridal shower and was hoping to scale up to a 13×9 pan. Any recommendations for adjusting the ingredients and bake time? Thank you!
Hi Julie, 9×13 is the perfect size for doubling this recipe. We’re unsure of the bake time though. Let us know how it goes!
Instead of 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk, can you substitute 1/2 cup of egg beaters for the 2 whole eggs and add 1 egg yolk?
Hi Fran! We suggest sticking with the recipe as written for best results. Egg yolks are important for thickening and setting these bars.
I can’t keep these on the tray!!! I’ll set them out, and the room usually gets quiet because everyone immediately shoves these in their faces. Even before I reveal that they’re low fat, low sugar, low calorie, and low carb! And there’s always someone who wants the recipe. Good thing I have it bookmarked!
I think next time I will double the crust recipe so it can be thick and easier to hold the bars.
My only issue is I can’t seem to keep the cheesecake part from cracking. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?
I have used a glass Pyrex 7×11 and a ceramic 8×8 because that’s all I had on hand. Maybe a mug of water next to it in the oven will keep it moist? Am I baking it too long? I ended up having to do about 10-15 minutes extra before it stopped being jiggly. SOS!
5 stars tho!!!!
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for your kind review, we’re so glad you love these bars. We usually don’t encounter cracking with these cheesecake bars, is it possible they could be over-baked? Try reducing the time slightly next time – just until the center no longer jiggles.