Peanut Butter Bars

If you like peanut butter cups, you'll LOVE these no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars. They're rich, decadent, and easy to make with 5 ingredients!

It’s hard to eat just one of these no-bake peanut butter bars. …Which makes sense, because they’re like an even better version of a Reese’s peanut butter cup. A crisp chocolate layer tops a rich, fudgy peanut butter base. If you’re anything like me, you’ll finish one square and then return to the pan for another sliver…and then another. Aside from the fact that they’re delicious, I’ve been loving these chocolate peanut butter bars for a few reasons this summer. They’re no-bake, so you don’t have to heat up the house in order to make them. They’re SO easy. Just 5…

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Homemade Cherry Pie

Learn how to make a cherry pie! This easy recipe features a thick, almond-scented cherry pie filling and a flaky all-butter crust. It's SO delicious!

This cherry pie recipe is one of my favorite homemade desserts. It features a buttery, flaky crust and a velvety, almond-scented filling. If you allow it to cool completely, it slices beautifully, but the filling still stays a tiny bit juicy so that you can savor the cherries’ delicious texture. This cherry pie recipe is simple to make. But heads up: it does take some time. The pie dough has to chill and the filling has to cool before you can assemble and bake the pie. If you want to get ahead, you can make both the crust and the filling a…

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Lemon Bars

These easy lemon bars are a delicious sweet and tangy treat! They have a bright, creamy lemon curd filling and a crisp shortbread crust.

Who else loves lemon bars?! It probably comes as no surprise that these bright, zesty squares are one of my favorite desserts. I shared a recipe for vegan lemon bars in my second cookbook, but I’ve never shared a classic lemon bars recipe until now. I’m so excited to finally change that! This recipe comes to you after lots of testing and tinkering. To me, it has the ideal ratio of lemon filling to shortbread crust. The lemon curd layer is thick, creamy, and not too sweet, delivering the tartness I crave in a lemon bar. The buttery crust is…

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30 Easy Summer Desserts

Satisfy your sweet tooth with these easy summer desserts! They include fuss-free ice cream recipes, no-bake treats, fruit pies, crisps, and more.

Bring on the summer desserts! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for frozen treats like ice cream and popsicles. I’m ready for no-bake sweets that hit the spot on days when it’s too hot to use the oven. And I’m especially ready for summer desserts that showcase the season’s best fruit. Cherry pie? Peach crisp? Blueberry cobbler? Yes, please! You’ll find 30 of my favorite easy summer desserts below. Some are perfect for packing up for picnics. Others are designed to help you cool off on hot days, and still others are celebration-worthy centerpieces like pies, cakes, and tarts. I love…

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Strawberry Shortcake

Homemade strawberry shortcake is the perfect summer dessert! My recipe is easy and delicious, featuring flaky lemon biscuits, fresh berries, and cream.

This strawberry shortcake recipe is the ultimate summer dessert! Fresh strawberries and airy whipped cream fill flaky, tender homemade biscuits. At this time of year, strawberries are at their best. They’re insanely juicy and bursting with sweet and tangy flavor. I love this recipe because it shows how little you have to do to make them a delicious dessert. There’s no need to cook them or even sweeten them. Just sandwich them between biscuits with a dollop of whipped cream for a simple, rustic, and luxurious treat. If you’ve never made strawberry shortcake from scratch before, I hope you’ll try…

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Rhubarb Crisp

This rhubarb crisp recipe features tart, jammy rhubarb topped with a buttery oat crumble. It's SO easy and delicious—the perfect spring dessert!

Step aside, strawberry rhubarb pie! This rhubarb crisp recipe is my favorite spring dessert. I love it because it’s so easy (HUGE bonus points for not requiring pie crust), but it’s still completely delicious. A layer of fresh rhubarb bakes to jammy, sweet-tart perfection, and a brown sugar and oat crumble crisps up beautifully on top. I’m personally incapable of eating it without a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but hey, you do you. I’ve been making this rhubarb crisp recipe for years now. In fact, I first planned to share it three years ago, right around the time our son…

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Lemon Curd

With its silky smooth texture and sweet/tart lemon flavor, this homemade lemon curd is a delicious treat. Enjoy it on scones, ice cream, and more!

This homemade lemon curd is so delicious that you’ll want to eat it off a spoon. It’s rich, sweet, and delightfully tart, bursting with bright citrus flavor. Imagine if the top of a lemon bar or the middle of a lemon meringue pie became a smooth and creamy spread. That’s this lemon curd. As the world’s biggest fan of anything lemon, I’ve always loved lemon curd. But I didn’t try making my own until recently. I thought it would be fussy and hard to get just right, but I was in for a surprise: Lemon curd is super easy to…

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41 Best Carrot Recipes

Looking for new ways to cook carrots? These easy carrot recipes can help! They include fresh salads, cozy soups, the moistest carrot cake, and more.

What are your favorite carrot recipes? If you said classic carrot cake or baby carrots and dip, you’re probably not alone. But I’m sharing 40+ of my best carrot recipes here in the hopes that you’ll try cooking this bright orange vegetable in a new way. They might seem humble, but carrots are insanely versatile. Roasted carrots make a wonderful side dish, for example, and carrot ginger soup is the perfect cozy meal for a cold day. Tangy pickled carrots are great for snacking, while a fresh carrot salad could be the star of your next picnic. Below, you’ll find…

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Matcha Cookies

These bright green matcha cookies are a unique, delicious treat! They have a sweet, earthy matcha flavor, tender texture, and rich white chocolate on top.

These matcha cookies are my kind of cookies. They’re easy to make. They’re as cute as can be. And while they satisfy my sweet tooth, they’re not just sweet. Matcha powder gives these cookies complexity. If you’re not familiar with matcha, it’s a Japanese green tea powder made from shade-grown, finely ground green tea leaves. Its earthy, grassy, and subtly bitter taste shines through in these cookies, balancing their sweetness perfectly. Bonus: it makes them bright green! These matcha cookies have crisp edges, tender middles, and a white chocolate shell on top. They’re unique and delicious. You have to try them! Matcha…

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Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Moist, fluffy, and warmly spiced, these carrot cake cupcakes are an easy, delicious treat! Tangy cream cheese frosting takes them over the top.

These carrot cake cupcakes are the fun-size version of my favorite spring dessert: carrot cake! I love to bring them to parties and gatherings because they’re easy to make, perfect for sharing, and sooo delicious. Just like a great slice of carrot cake, these carrot cupcakes are soft, moist, warmly spiced, and packed with fresh carrots. Rich, tangy cream cheese frosting takes them over the top. Carrot Cake Cupcakes Ingredients Here’s what you’ll need to make this carrot cake cupcake recipe: Carrots, of course! They add moisture and sweet, earthy flavor to these scrumptious cupcakes. All-purpose flour – Spoon and…

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Cream Cheese Frosting

Learn how to make cream cheese frosting with just 4 ingredients! Sweet, creamy, rich, and tangy, it's delicious on cakes, cupcakes, and more.

Who doesn’t love cream cheese frosting?! This sweet, tangy topping is the perfect complement to just about any cake or cupcake, not to mention cookies, bars, and quick breads. I have it on repeat around here in the spring, when we have carrot cake cupcakes for Easter, an actual carrot cake for Jack’s birthday, and then carrot cake cookies, well, just because I like them. 🙂 My cream cheese frosting recipe calls for 4 basic ingredients, and it comes together in less than 10 minutes. The next time you want to make a homemade baked good taste extra-decadent and special,…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Welcome to Love & Lemons!

I'm Jeanine Donofrio, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author and recipe developer. I share fresh, delicious vegetarian recipes that celebrate seasonal ingredients and flavors.

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