Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Equipment
- 1 large cookie sheet
- handheld beater or standing mixer
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 8 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature (8 oz. = 2 sticks = 1 cup)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking powder
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 3 tbsp. lemon juice fresh squeezed
- 1 tbsp. milk you may or may not need this to get to the right consistency for the icing
Instructions
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift flour with baking powder and salt into a separate bowl. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, (or using a handheld beater) beat the butter, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla on low speed to blend. Increase speed and Beat until fluffy and well-blended.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, keeping the speed on low. Mix just until combined. Gather the dough into a ball and refrigerate to firm up just a bit, maybe 10-15 minutes. (Dough can be refrigerated overnight or for several days before baking it, too.)
- Remove dough from the plastic wrap and roll out onto a floured cloth or board to a thickness of about 1/4-inch. Using a cookie cutter of any shape, or the top of a glass, cut the dough into the desired shapes. You may need to dip the cutters or glass top in flour between cutting every few cookies to keep the dough from sticking.
- Place the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate on the baking sheet for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops are just beginning to turn golden-brown. Remove from oven and cool completely before icing and decorating.
Lemon Icing
- Using a whisk, blend sifted powered sugar with lemon juice until well blended. Add enough milk to arrive at a good spreadable icing consistency.
- Using a spoon, drizzle icing over each cookie, or simply dip the tops of the cookies into the bowl of icing. Add sprinkles immediately before the icing starts to harden up.
- Allow icing to dry completely before storing cookies.
Notes
- If you want to make shortbread sandwich cookies, roll out the cookie a little bit thinner than 1/4-inch and bake for slightly less time. When you assemble the cookies, simply spread the frosting on top of one cookie and place another cookie on top.
- These cookies are delicious dipped into lemon curd, or even better lemon mousse. We have our recipe for lemon curd mousse here.