Best Lemon Shortbread Cookie Recipes

LEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• For the lemon and cranberry shortbread dough: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-13-inch pan with aluminum foil (with a 2-inch overhang on all four sides) and grease the bottom and sides with butter.
• In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar and vanilla on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and mix on medium-low until incorporated. Mix in the cranberries and lemon zest.
• Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake until slightly brown, about 25 minutes.
• For the filling: While the shortbread is baking, whisk together the sugar, eggs, lemon juice, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Pour the filling over the baked crust and continue baking until the filling sets and is slightly brown on the edges, about 20 minutes
• Let cool completely in the pan. Use the foil edges to help lift the bar out of the baking pan. Cut into 24 squares and dust with confectioners' sugar.

LEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a small bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Beat in lemon zest and vanilla. Combine the flour, cornstarch, nutmeg, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. (Dough will be crumbly.) Shape into a ball., On a lightly floured surface, press dough to 1/2-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 1-in. fluted cookie cutter; place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Prick cookies with a fork. Reroll scraps if desired. , Bake until firm, 12-15 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes before carefully removing to wire racks to cool completely. , Combine confectioners' sugar and lemon juice; drizzle over cookies. Store in an airtight container.

LEMON-BUTTER SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Sift or whisk flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl.
• Place butter in a large mixing bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until very creamy. Add confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, and flour mixture; mix until well combined.
• Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a round cookie cutter. Transfer cookies to ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are light brown on the bottom but still very light on top, about 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for about 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
• Whisk melted butter and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Add lemon zest and whisk again. Whisk in confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time. Add more lemon juice if necessary for a thin consistency.
• Dip the top of each cookie in the glaze and transfer to a wire rack placed over waxed paper or parchment paper. Allow cookies to sit until glaze has set, about 2 hours.
• Store cookies in an airtight container between layers of waxed paper.

MEYER LEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Spray or butter a 9" pie plate. Cut out a piece of parchment and line the pie plate.
• You can make this one of two ways (both ways are easy, one is noisy). If you have a food processor (like this), add the flour, sugar, and butter and pulse around 20 times. Alternatively you could blend it for 10 seconds in the processor. Stop, then add the lemon zest and juice. Pulse a few more times until it's all mixed together. It should look a bit wet at this point.
• If you don't have a food processor or don't want to wash one, you can use a pastry cutter like this. I often use this instead if I bake during nap time because it's the quiet option and we live in a small house. It's more of an arm workout but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In this case, put the flour, sugar, and butter into a bowl and use the pastry cutter to mix everything together. The butter should be in teeny pieces by the time you're done and the dough should look slightly wet. Add the lemon zest and juice and use the pastry cutter briefly to mix them in so it's uniform.
• In either case, dump out the dough (it will just look like crumbly bits at this point) into your prepared pie plate. Press very firmly into the parchment-lined dish. Really press it down. This will help it hold together and will cut nicely for you after it's baked.
• Put the pie plate with the shortbread dough in the freezer for 20 minutes. This chills the dough so it doesn't puff up as much while it's baking and keeps its shape. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350F.
• After the chill time, remove the pie plate from the freezer and prick the dough all over with a fork. Bake at 350F for ~35 minutes, until it starts to lightly brown.
• When you take it from the oven, immediately cut it into 16 wedges while it's still hot. This will making slicing it much easier before it firms up more. Let it cool completely in the dish, then remove and devour. Or bite daintily. Whichever.

LEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment mix together softened butter with zest of 2 lemons making sure to scrape down sides halfway through mixing.
• Mix granulated sugar with butter just until combined and then mix in lemon extract.
• Sift together flour and salt. With stand mixer turned off, add all of the flour mixture and mix on the lowest speed until dough just comes together, about 2 mins.
• Place dough on lightly floured surface and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 mins.
• Preheat oven to 350℉. Zest 3rd lemon and mix with sparkling sugar.
• Roll chilled dough into 1/2 inch thickness and form into a rectangle as best as possible. Using a sharp knife cut cookies into 1 inch by 3 inch rectangles.
• Using a spatula place cookies on 2 ungreased cookie sheets. Evenly sprinkle each cookie with sparkling sugar mixture.
• Bake for 20-25 mins or until corners turn a light golden brown, making sure to turn cookie trays halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on cookie sheets.

LEMON SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with rack in upper third. Sift flour and salt into a bowl; set aside. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl. Gradually add sugar; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in lemon zest and juice.
• Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture all at once; mix until just combined.
• Halve dough, and shape into disks. Wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out rounds with a 2-inch fluted cutter. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
• Bake until pale golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

LEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Next, add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and thyme and mix again. Finally, add the flour and salt and mix until just combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten into a 1" disk. If the dough is sticky, wrap and chill for 15 to 30 minutes until firm but still pliable.
• Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until about ¼" thick. If desired, you can roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Use 2" cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes. Transfer to the baking sheet and bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Keep any extra cut-out cookies in the fridge until ready to bake.
• Remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. Store at room temperature for up to 5 days.