Make the easy lemon shortbread cookies with 7 simple steps! They are perfectly tangy, buttery, and lightly crispy. Enjoy them during your tea time break, as a kids' snack, or as a gift for lemon lovers!
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Why You'll Love This Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Easy steps: The lemon cookies are extremely easy to make. Just keep adding in the ingredients, and the cookie dough is made in about 5 minutes!
- Simple ingredients: You'll only need 6 ingredients you can find at any grocery store.
- Lightly Crispy: The buttery cookie is incredibly lightly crispy. It is far from crunchy - It breaks delicately when you bite it gently.
- Perfectly citrusy: The gentle lemon scent and flavor spread in your mouth when you have the cookie itself. Top it with a simple lemon glaze to make it taste perfectly tangy!
This is the lemon version of my classic shortbread recipe. I love making both flavors and sharing them in a cookie box! 🍋
Tips For The Ingredients
Shortbread Dough
- Unsalted butter: Use room temperature butter for it to blend with other ingredients well. Otherwise, it'll get harder to incorporate them easily. This is one of the most important things when making this shortbread cookie dough!
- Powdered sugar: It creates a very delicate crispiness. When using granulated sugar, the cookie feels crispier, and the texture feels rougher.
- Salt: A little bit of the salt goes well with the butter and lemon flavor.
- Lemon zest: The fresh lemon zest makes a huge difference, adding an amazing aroma and flavor.
- Lemon juice: Just a little bit of lemon juice is added to enhance the lemon flavor in the cookies.
- All-purpose flour: Use regular all-purpose flour.
- Cornstarch: The cookie feels more lightly crispy when a little bit of cornstarch is mixed in. Alternate it with all-purpose flour when you don't want to use it.
Lemon Icing
- Powdered sugar
- Lemon juice
Can I use lemon extract or oil instead of lemon zest and lemon juice?
It is possible, but I highly recommend using fresh lemon zest and lemon juice for the best results. I feel natural lemons always make significantly better lemon aroma and flavor than artificial flavors.
How To Make Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Cream butter, powdered sugar, salt, and lemon zest.
In a mixing bowl, add softened butter, powdered sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Blend them with a paddle attachment until smooth. Start mixing at a low speed in the beginning so that the powdered sugar does not scatter everywhere, and gradually speed up.
Tip💡: There is no need to whip butter - The more you whip, the more the cookies expand in the oven due to the air incorporated inside. I like the texture, but wouldn't do it to hold the clear cut-out shape in the oven.
Add lemon juice.
Mix until well combined.
Mix in flour.
Add in all-purpose flour and cornstarch and mix until evenly incorporated. Scrape off the bottom and sides of the bowl, a paddle attachment, and a spatula on the way to pick up unmixed butter and flour.
Roll the dough.
Spread the dough into about ¼ inch thickness with a rolling pin. I recommend dividing the dough in half, sandwiching each of them with plastic wrap, and rolling them. In this way, you can roll the dough without additional flour on the working surface, which makes the cookies crunchier.
Tip💡: When the parchment paper is slippery, lay a thin, rough cloth underneath it. Flattening the surface of the dough over parchment paper before rolling the dough also helps with it!
Chill the dough and cut it with cookie cutters.
Chill the dough for more than one hour to rest the glutens in the flour. By doing it, you can prevent the dough from shrinking or puffing up while baking it, which leads to more flat cookies.
Tip💡: I like to chill the dough before cutting it when using a regular cookie cutter (image on the left). When using a traditional style cookie cutter with a closed top (image on the right), cut the cookie dough while they are soft and chill it in the fridge since the firm dough often gets stuck in the cookie cutter, and it is harder to take it out!
Cut it with your favorite cookie cutters and line them on parchment paper, a mesh silicone mat, or a regular silicone mat on baking sheets. I made 2 shapes this time: lemon and ruffled circle shapes!
Correct the remaining dough and repeat the process. One batch of the recipe makes about 3 dozen 2.3-inch (6 cm) circle cookies.
Bake the cookies.
Bake (Preheated) at 350ºF (175ºC) for about 10 - 15 minutes until the edge gets lightly golden brown. Adjust the baking time depending on the thickness and size of the cookies, oven, etc.
Drizzle the lemon icing.
Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth.
Drizzle it over the baked cookies. Move a piping bag quickly to draw straight lines easily. The lines seem to look prettier whenever I don't overthink it and do it roughly! You can also use a spoon, ziplock, etc.
As an option, bake the iced cookies at 300ºF (149ºC) for a few minutes to dry the icing a little bit faster.
And that's it! Enjoy.
The Video Tutorial
Watch the video tutorial to learn how to make lemon cookies visually and have a deeper understanding of each step!
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Tips For Storing The Lemon Cookies
How do I store lemon shortbread cookies?
Store them in an airtight container. I like to store any crispy type of cookies with silica gels to keep them perfectly crispy for longer days.
How long do lemon shortbread cookies last?
You can store them for about a week at room temperature or about 10 days in the fridge.
FAQ
Store the cookie dough for up to 4 - 5 days in the fridge.
Yes, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and store it in the freezer for up to a few months. Thaw it overnight in the fridge before using it. It's important to leave it at room temperature for some time to soften it since the dough gets pretty hard when it's chilled due to the butter inside.
Margarine contains oil, which makes the cookies spread a lot more in the oven while baking them. I highly recommend using pure butter if you want to keep the cut-out shape more clearly.
It is possible, but I highly recommend not omitting it since it adds an amazing flavor and aroma of fresh lemons.
I recommend rolling it to ¼-inch thickness or less since the dough spreads more in the oven when it's thicker.
Yes! I recommend using gel paste food coloring to give the dough a bright color without adding too much of it and messing up the consistency of the dough.
Yes, you can mix the butter, powdered sugar, salt, lemon zest, and lemon juice with a whisk and blend in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula.
I like adding ingredients, such as mini chocolate chips, dried herbs like rosemary, and toasted nuts like pecans!
More Lemon Desserts
If you love this easy lemon shortbread cookie recipe, also try other delicious lemon desserts!
💬 If you loved this recipe, please share your feedback on this post! I always love hearing how you enjoyed it with your friends and family.
If you have a question about the tutorial, leave it in the comment section below, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Equipment
- Zester
- Rubber spatula
- Parchment paper
- Rolling Pin
- Baking sheet
- Fork
Ingredients
- 226 g Unsalted butter
- 90 g Powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 lemon Lemon zest
- 10 g Lemon juice
- 290 g All-purpose flour
- 25 g Cornstarch
NOTE: For best results, measure ingredients with a scale. All recipes are designed with weighed ingredients using grams/ounces. Cup measurements (US customary units) are provided for your convenience.
Instructions
Shortbread Dough
- Cream butter, powdered sugar, salt, and lemon zest:In a mixing bowl, add softened butter, powdered sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Blend them with a paddle attachment until smooth. Start mixing at a low speed in the beginning so that the powdered sugar does not scatter everywhere, and gradually speed up.
- Add lemon juice:Mix until well combined.
- Mix in flour:Add in all-purpose flour and cornstarch and mix until evenly incorporated. Scrape off the bottom and sides of the bowl, a paddle attachment, and a spatula on the way to pick up unmixed butter and flour.
- Roll the dough:Spread the dough into about ¼ inch thickness with a rolling pin. I recommend dividing the dough in half, sandwiching each of them with plastic wrap, and rolling them. In this way, you can roll the dough without additional flour on the working surface, which makes the cookies crunchier.
- Chill the dough and cut it with cookie cutters:Chill the dough for more than one hour to rest the glutens in the flour. By doing it, you can prevent the dough from shrinking or puffing up while baking it and create more flat cookies.When using a traditional style cookie cutter with a closed top, cut the cookie dough while they are soft and chill it in the fridge since the firm dough often gets stuck in the cookie cutter and harder to take it out!Cut it with your favorite cookie cutters and line them on parchment paper, a mesh silicone mat, or a regular silicone mat on baking sheets.Correct the remaining dough and repeat the process. One batch of the recipe makes about 3 dozen 2.3-inch (6 cm) circle cookies.
- Bake the cookies:Bake (Preheated) at 350ºF (175ºC) for about 10 - 15 minutes until the edge gets lightly golden brown. Adjust the baking time depending on the thickness and size of the cookies, oven, etc.
Lemon Icing
- Drizzle the lemon icing:Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth.Drizzle it over the baked cookies. Move a piping bag quickly to draw straight lines easily. The lines seem to look prettier whenever I don't overthink it and do it roughly! You can also use a spoon, ziplock, etc.As an option, bake the iced cookies at 300ºF (149ºC) for a few minutes to dry the icing a little bit faster.
Video
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