These lemon shortbread cookies have a signature crumbly shortbread texture and bright fresh zesty flavor, and simply melt in your mouth with every bite!
I love how neat cut-out cookies look, and these lemon shortbread cookies are perfect cut-out cookies for spring and summer!
Gina’s Recipe Rundown:
Texture: Super satisfying crumbly texture, very soft cookies with silky glaze.
Taste: An ode to subtle tart lemon flavor balanced by sweet sugar and rich buttery taste. The taste is very balanced, not overly sweet and the citrus is not overpowering. And how they smell!!
Ease: Incredibly easy recipe with simple ingredients and steps. And you can cut the cookies with your kids!
Why I love it: They taste even better (and more lemony) the next day!
My chef’s tip to make lemon shortbread cookies melt in your mouth is to skip leavening agents and add egg yolk for a soft texture. The cookies will be perfectly soft yet won’t spread.
If you have home-grown lemons or just love the zesty lemon flavor, here are my favorite lemon recipes: these Girl Scout Lemon cookies, indulgent fluffy lemon cheesecake, old-fashioned lemon lush, or thick and crinkly lemon cookies with cake mix.
- Gina’s Recipe Rundown:
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients Notes
- Kitchen Equipment
- How To Make Lemon Shortbread Cookies Recipe
- Storage
- Substitutions & Variations
- Expert Tips To Make The Best Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Popular Questions
- What Is The Secret To Making Good Shortbread?
- What Is The Difference Between English Shortbread And Scottish Shortbread?
- What Are Common Mistakes When Making Shortbread?
- What Is The Difference Between Butter Cookies, Sugar Cookies, And Shortbread Cookies?
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- A large batch of cookies – this recipe yields 30 small shortbread cookies
- Very short chilling time, so the first batch of cookies will be ready within an hour!
- Only 8 ingredients to make lemon shortbread cookies and the glaze.
- I absolutely love how easy-to-customize shortbread recipes are! I have some for Valentine’s, Halloween, Christmas cookies, and more.
- A budget-friendly sweet treat that is also great to make ahead and freeze.
Ingredients Notes
The recipe calls for just a few pantry staples that you can find at home or at any grocery store. For exact quantities and steps, see the recipe card (it is printable or works in cook mode).
I sway a bit away from the classic shortbread cookie 3-2-1 ratio (3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, and 1 part sugar) but I promise the final result is worth it!
Cookies
- Unsalted butter softened at room temperature (so leave it on the counter 40 minutes to 1 hour prior to cooking). Butter is what gives the cookies their famous buttery taste and rich soft texture.
- Granulated sugar
- Lemon zest
- Vanilla extract. Pure vanilla extract is best, you can also use vanilla bean paste. Don’t add too much, let lemon be the star of the show.
- Lemon juice
- Flour mixture: salt + all-purpose flour. I don’t use any baking soda or baking powder so we don’t have to worry about spreading. The shortbread cookie is rather flat and thin, perfect to pop in your mouth. Make sure to measure and sift flour to avoid any lumps and dense texture.
- Egg yolk is my secret ingredient to make ultra-soft lemon shortbread cookies.
Lemon Glaze
- Confectioner’s sugar
- Fresh lemon juice. Simply buy a fresh lemon, zest it first to keep the zest, and then juice it. Make sure to remove any seeds from the juice. If you want a milder citrusy flavor, look for Meyer lemons.
- Lemon zest
Kitchen Equipment
- Cookie sheet with parchment paper
- Stand mixer or electric mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutter. Use any shape you like.
- Measuring cup
- Rubber spatula
How To Make Lemon Shortbread Cookies Recipe
1: Prepare Cookie Dough
- Cream butter in a large mixing bowl until well-creamed.
- Add sugar and lemon zest to the butter mixture and mix again until creamy.
- Stir in the vanilla, add lemon juice, and salt, until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula to ensure the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add the egg yolk and beat until just combined.
- Fold in the flour using a silicone spatula until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl several times – the mixture is dry. Be sure to incorporate the crumbs that fall to the bottom of the bowl.
2: Chill Cookie Dough
- Form the dough into a ball, by gently kneading it. Flatten the dough into a disk (about 1″ to 1/4″ thick), cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Once the dough has chilled, roll it out on a lightly floured surface using a lightly floured rolling pin. Roll it out to about ¼” thickness. It is easier to roll shortbread cookie dough through parchment paper.
3: Bake Lemon Cookies
- Lightly flour the cookie cutters and cut out the shapes. If the dough is too soft to work with, put it back in the fridge for a little while and try again.
- Transfer the cut cookie dough to a prepared baking sheet, placing at least 1″ apart.
- Re-combine the dough scraps, roll it out again, and cut the dough repeating until you have used all of the dough to get the maximum number of cookies from it. No waste in my kitchen!
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. They are done when the edges are ligthly golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the cooling rack before decorating.
4: Glaze The Cookies
- Combine the sugar, lemon juice, and zest in a small bowl – whisk well to combine.
- You can adjust the thickness of the glaze – adding more lemon juice for a thinner glaze or more sugar for a thicker consistency.
- You can drizzle the glaze over or dip the cookies. The glaze may take time to fully set (up to 2 hrs depending on how thin you made it).
- If you have some leftover lemon zest, sprinkle it on top of the glazed cookies.
- Serve with a glass of milk or a cup of tea/coffee.
Storage
Keep leftover lemon shortbread cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days or in the fridge for 2 weeks.
You can also freeze baked cookies for 1 month. Let the cookies cool, transfer them to the freezer bag, and store them. To serve, simply let them warm up to the room temperature on the counter.
To make ahead prepare the dough and cut out cookies and keep it refrigerated for up to 2 days or freeze it for up to 3 months. You can bake cookies from the freezer, just add extra 5 minutes.
Substitutions & Variations
- Skip the glaze and simply dust the baked cookies with some powdered sugar or use chocolate drizzle. If you skip the glazing, you can use a cookie stamp to decorate cookies.
- Add ginger. Lemon and ginger are such a great match in dessert cuisine.
- You can experiment with other citruses! Grapefruit and blood oranges (they also make beautiful pink glaze, which is great for Valentine’s or birthday) are just some ideas.
- Use lemon sugar! It is the same granulated sugar but it was combined with fresh lemon zest. You can make it at home, simply pulse granulated sugar with lemon zest in food processor.
- Enhance the zesty lemony taste by adding lemon extract. You can also use orange extract and orange zest to make a more complex flavor profile.
- Make vegan and GF lemon shortbread cookies. Gluten free flour will work just fine, and you can use vegan butter sticks, and skip the egg.
- If you need to balance out sweetness and acidity sprinkle flaky sea salt on top of the cookies or add aromatic herbs to the dough mix (like thyme).
Expert Tips To Make The Best Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Soften the butter to room temperature, but don’t let it melt. Softened butter should retain its shape but be easy to press with a finger.
- Overmixing can lead to tough cookies. However, if your dough is too dry, you can add lemon juice and it should come together nicely.
- Shortbread cookies can overbake quickly. Check them at 8 minutes and look for a pale color with slightly golden edges.
- You can let the cookie dough chill in the fridge overnight.
- You can add cornstarch to the cookie dough, it will keep cookies soft yet crisp.
- When working in batches don’t place raw dough on hot baking sheet. Either let it cool or have several sheets to use.
Popular Questions
What Is The Secret To Making Good Shortbread?
The secret to making good shortbread is using high-quality unsalted butter and proper measuring and sifting of flour. If you mix the ingredients gently you will get soft dough. Chilling the dough even for 15 minutes makes a big difference in making shortbread cookies as it solidifies the butter and makes cookies hold the shape.
What Is The Difference Between English Shortbread And Scottish Shortbread?
English shortbread is often sweeter and sometimes includes more ingredients like eggs or vanilla, making it a bit softer. On the other hand, Scottish shortbread is using just butter, sugar, and flour, giving it a crumbly texture and a rich buttery taste. Scottish shortbread cookie dough rarely uses salt. Scottish shortbread is also often named the best shortbread cookie.
Rgular shortbread cookie dough can sometimes include leavening agents like baking soda or powder, but you can do without them.
What Are Common Mistakes When Making Shortbread?
Common mistakes when making shortbread are overmixing the dough, which can lead to tough cookies; using cold butter instead of room temperature butter, which will make the cookies fall apart; and baking in a hot oven at a temperature that is too high, which will burn the edges.
Also, when you add too much flour you will end up with cakey and dense cookies.
What Is The Difference Between Butter Cookies, Sugar Cookies, And Shortbread Cookies?
Butter cookies, sugar cookies, and shortbread cookies all have different textures and flavors even though use similar ingredients, just in different proportions.
Butter cookies are rich and buttery, made with a lot of butter, sugar, and flour, and they hold their shape well when baked. Sugar cookies are a bit sweeter and softer, often decorated with icing or sprinkles, and are great for cutting into shapes. Shortbread cookies are crumbly and melt in your mouth, made traditionally with just butter, sugar, and flour.
If you love this easy cookie recipe, you’re going to love these other shortbread cookies too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!
More Lemon Recipes
Girl Scout Cookies Lemonades – Copycat Recipe
CONNECT WITH YUMMI HAUS!
Be sure to follow me on my social media, so you never miss a post!
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ cup butter softened – unsalted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice up to 3 tablespoons – – fresh
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until well-creamed.
- Add sugar and lemon zest and mix again until creamy.
- Stir in the vanilla, lemon juice, and salt, until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula to ensure the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add the egg yolk and beat until just combined.
- Fold in the flour using a silicone spatula until well incorporated. (scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl several times – the mixture is dry. Be sure to incorporate the crumbs that fall to the bottom of the bowl.
- Form the dough into a ball. Flatten the dough into a disk (about 1″ thick), cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Once the dough has chilled, roll it out on a lightly floured surface using a lightly floured rolling pin. Roll it out to about ¼” thickness.
- Lightly flour the cookie cutters and cut out the shapes.
- Transfer the cut cookie dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet, placing at least 1″ apart.
- Re-combine the dough scraps, roll it out again, and cut the dough repeating until you have used all of the dough to get the maximum number of cookies from it.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate. Please double-check with your own dietary calculator for the best accuracy. We at Yummi Haus cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site.
Share Your Thoughts