Lemon Shortbread Cookies:
Literally the best cookies ever! These light, buttery cookies offer a subtle lemon flavor, and are topped with a bright and vibrant lemon glaze, giving you a mouthful of delicious goodness. These are special cookies.
So special, I have made an apple version for the fall–apple shortbread cookies.
Lemon Shortbread Cookies/h1>
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These Lemon Shortbread Cookie embodies the taste of summer! It is lemony sweet and sour goodness with a light, refreshing, taste, and a melt away goodness. These are one of my favorite cookies, but warning, they are dangerously good, and come together start to finish in less than 15 minutes, so it is easy to succumb to their siren’s call. You may find yourself eating the whole batch, so bake with a friend, there is safety in numbers!
The first time I madeLemon Shortbread Cookies I made them too sweet, so I played around and tweaked them until I reached utter perfection. But I wasn’t sure I could trust my own judgement because I was kind of in a sugar coma haze of deliciousness. So I took them to bowling league.
Fun Fact about me: I love to bowl.
The ladies at league gobbled them up. Everyone raved about them, and a month later when we were having a bowling pot luck they all asked me to bring them again. I am not just saying these are the best cookies ever. Literally every single person who has ever had the privilege of eating one has agreed with me. So do yourself a favor and make a big batch!
Baking Tools Used:
These are shortbread, so they are soft with a bit of crispness on the edges. They end up so tender and just melt away in your mouth.
Making Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Choosing Your Lemons: For these delights, I used Meyer lemons the first time I made them. They are slightly sweeter variety, and make for a nice alternative if you don’t like pucker. You can also use baby sweet lemons, which are a cross between lemons and another citrus. But honestly, any lemon variety will work.
- Know your Dough: This dough can be a little sandy. The more you work with it, the softer and more cohesive it becomes. So if your cookies aren’t staying together, knead the dough a little.
- Cut with a biscuit cutter for a uniform shape.
- Don’t over-bake: These shortbread cookies do not brown. If you wait for them to brown you will be eating hard cookies. Stick with the time, and just be gentle when removing them from the pan. Once they cool they will stay together just fine. Spoon the glaze over the top if they are still warm so that they don’t break while glazing.
- Bake on a silicone baking mat for easy removal.
These cookies are bite worthy in my estimation, and I hope you will love them as much as we do.
Try these other great cookie recipes too:
- Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
- Graham cracker chocolate chip cookies
- Peppermint Chocolate Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Funfetti Sugar Cookies
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbs lemon juice fresh
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice fresh
- 1/2 tbs milk 2%
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- In a mixer, mix together your butter and powdered sugar and lemon juice.
- When it is incorporated add in the salt and mix again.
- Then sift and add in the flour, and mix for a couple minutes. It will look like sand. Keep mixing and it will start to be more cohesive.
- Using your hands kind of squash it together to form a ball.
- Roll it out on a smooth surface using a rolling pin until it is about 3/4 a centimeter thickness.
- Use a round Cookie Cutteror biscuit cutter to form cookies.
- Transfer to a lined baking sheet. I used a pancake turner to transfer cookies from counter to pan without them falling apart or getting messed up.
- Bake on an un-greased baking sheet for 6 minutes. (do not brown)
- Let cool on pan 1 minute
- Move to a cooling rack
- Mix together glaze by whisking all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
- Glaze cookies by spooning glaze over the top, then let cool until glaze firms up.
- Lemon Zester a little lemon on top (optional)
- This makes 18 cookies
Video
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Pin to your COOKIES board on Pinterest:
Rebecca @ Dorm Room Baker says
These look delicious! They’re so pretty with the lemon slice on top. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Meyer lemons are sweet enough that you can eat the slices like that?
Rachael says
Yes, Meyer lemons are sweet, which make them perfect for this recipe, but any lemon works. Thanks for stopping by again.
Leslie Stewart @ House on the Way says
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe at the Twirl & Take a Bow party! Your cookies look so yummy!
Have a great week.
debattinella says
Thanks for sharing with us at Marvelous Monday last week – these will be featured on my page and pinned also… I’m a lemon lover!
Rachael says
Thank you! Lemon is currently my favorite, and these were so good. I will have to come grab your badge! Thanks!
Ali @ Jamhands.net says
Woot! You have been featured this week at Recipe Sharing Monday! The new link party is up and I’d love to see you back. Have a great week. 🙂
Rachael says
Awesome! Thank you. I will stop by!
Alexis @ We Like to Learn as We Go says
Oh yum these sound delicious! I just pinned it!
Rachael says
Thanks for the pin. They are really good! I hope you try them. Super easy.
Analida's Ethnic Spoon says
Lemon cookies 🙂 Yes please! I love the tangy sweet taste of lemon in dessert, especially when you add in the zest for a pretty pop of color.
Rachael says
Oh I agree! And these are seriously delicious. I hope you love them.
Katherine says
These really do look like the best cookies ever!
Rachael says
I swear they are. They are sooo dreamy. Just a light, fluffy, dough, that is buttery soft and delicious.
Peggy says
Can these be used as a decorated cookie
Rachael says
They can, but they are pretty delicate, so you may want to bake an extra minute.
Tina says
These cookies look so yummy, that I immediately tried the recipe. They tase really good (I mean it’s just sugar and butter, what can go wrong), but they fall apart even when fully cooled down. Also handling the dough was pretty tricky as it constantly falls apart into little crumbs. I feel like the outcome isn’t worth the effort … unfortunately : (
Rachael says
Tina, I am so sorry to hear that. I make them regularly, and this can happen. I wish I understood why the dough varies so much. You could try adding a little more liquid or refrigerate it some before rolling it out.
Karly says
MUST EAT ALL THE LEMON THINGS. I mean seriously, is lemon everything not the best part of summer? These cookies look divine!
Rachael says
We are lemon soul sisters I can’t get enough! And this one is my favorite.
mary says
I made the mistake of baking these for my roommates, and they wouldn’t shut up about them until I made another batch a week later. Hopefully it will keep them satisfied for the time being! I used cookie cutters with fun shapes and baked them for another two minutes with no negative side effects on texture. Thanks so much for sharing the perfect lemon cookie recipe. 🙂
Rachael says
Mary thanks for taking the time to let me know! I am so glad they liked them. Have a great day.
Brenda says
I made these cookies for Christmas! They were a HIT! My son said they were the best cookie he had ever eaten. They melt in your mouth……Delicious!
Chloe says
These cookies are so good! I had to try them! I made the recipe and it took me over 2 hours to make! Definatly not 11! SO worth it though! I cooked them for 7 minutes and they turned out perfectly. Thank you for this recipe!
Rachael says
I am so glad you liked them. They are one of my favorite. But sorry they took you so long to make!