Reviewing Krusteaz’s Meyer Lemon bar box mix

I absolutely love a good lemon bar and come to think of it, I’ve never had a bad lemon bar, just some mediocre ones. The best lemon bar I’ve had was given to me by a coworker from their favorite restaurant that they had just come back from. It was extraordinary. I only had it once and I never stop thinking about it. Since I no longer work with that person, I am constantly chasing that lemon bar high. In my typical fashion, I plan to exhaust all box mix options to see if they hit that spot before I put in more effort with a homemade recipe. We all want quick and easy as long as it’s good too so let’s see if Krusteaz can provide the perfect lemon bar.

Krusteaz’s lemon bar mix is labeled “Meyer Lemon” for the type of fruit they use in the batter. One of their listed ingredients is “Lemon powder (made from meyer lemons)”. I researched these meyer lemons to see what the hype is all about. These lemons are different in shape, appearance, and texture. They are considered sweeter, with a mild acidity, making them better for desserts. Sounds like the perfect fruit for a lemon bar.

This box mix was pretty simple. You just add eggs, water, and melted butter. Inside the box there are two bags, one for the crust mix and one for the filling mix. You start by adding the water and eggs to the dry filling mix. It comes together into a thin, sweet and tart filling that you set aside. Next you combine the crust dry mix with the melted butter and press the crumbly dough into the bottom of an 8×8 pan. This dough was sweeter than a pie dough but a similar flavor profile. You bake this crust alone first, the package called for 12-14 minutes and it took 12 minutes until it appeared fully cooked. The crust appears crumbly but it actually held together nicely in the finished bar form.

Next you poor the filling mix on top of the hot crust and put it back into the oven. The packaging calls for 24-26 minutes and at 24 minutes it was browning on the edges and ready to come out. I was very impressed that not one but two accurate bake times were provided on this packaging. That is a miracle I never expected to see. I pulled the cooked lemon bars from the oven and to my horror, found two large chunks of cooked egg white on the top that did not get incorporated into the mix properly. I’m not sure if this was user error or if it was due to the filling mixture sitting while the crust baked but it grossed me and had me concerned for the rest of the bars. However, I did not find any more chunks once cut up so I am lucky that they were just at the top.

I cut the pan into 16 bars. You are supposed to wait for them to chill for at least an hour before cutting them into bars and I did not. Please don’t follow in my footsteps no matter how late it is and how desperately you want a lemon bar. It turns into a gooey mess and really, it’s worth waiting. I ate one warm and one cold and let me tell you, chilled is so much better. The flavor was fantastic in these bars. It has a good ratio of sweetness to tartness and the crust had the right amount of a crisp to it. Powdered sugar was pictured on the display image but was not mentioned as an ingredient however, if you have it on hand, it is such an amazing additive to this dessert. I definitely recommend sprinkling some on top. These lemon bars by Krusteaz were fantastic and I would absolutely purchase this mix again.

This mixture as prepared comes to a total of 2740 calories. If divided into 16 as I did, they would be 171 calories a piece.

Here are the links to products used today:
Rubber Spatulas – https://amzn.to/3JWDtAA
Oven Mitts – https://amzn.to/3JYq5Mg
8×8 baking pan – https://amzn.to/4dyO2Yb
Glass Measuring Cup – https://amzn.to/44IuX1B
*These are affiliate links meaning if you click on the link and buy the product, I will earn a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more.