In this post: An easy recipe for Lemon Shortbread Cookies. A fresh lemon and sugar glaze tops off these lemon shortbread cookies. They melt in your mouth!
*UPDATE December 4, 2020: The original recipe for these lemon shortbread cookies was published in 2015. It was delicious, but the dough was very crumbly. To eliminate this issue, I adjusted the ingredients, and it works much better! Find the updated version in the recipe card below.
When it’s too cold to go out, I head to the kitchen. This week I made what I lovingly refer to as “comfort food.” A pot of soup, banana breadand these little lemon shortbread cookies. During these long, cold evenings, I have been pouring over old cookbooks trying to find easy recipes with basic ingredients. These lemon shortbread cookies are just that. You should have everything you need, except maybe the lemons, in your pantry. So add lemons to your grocery list, and you will be ready to whip up these amazingly good shortbread cookies!
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Lemon Shortbread Cookes Easy Recipe. A fresh lemon and sugar glaze tops off these lemon shortbread cookies. They melt in your mouth!
Zest and juice the lemons. Set both zest and juice aside.
Beat butter, sugar, salt, and lemon zest until smooth. About 2 minutes.
Add flour in two increments, and blend well, about 2 minutes.
Add 2 teaspoons lemon juice and beat just a bit more.
Put the dough out on to a floured surface. Knead and turn until it comes together, adding more flour if necessary. Shape into a disc.
Divide in half. Wrap and refrigerate dough for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Remove one section of dough from refrigerator. Roll out to 1/4 in. thick.
Cut out with cookie cutter. I used a 2 1/2 in. circle.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 6-7 minutes. Do not brown. Bottoms will be light golden.
After removing from oven, let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Place cookies on cooling rack.
Repeat process for second half of dough.
Combine powdered sugar, milk and lemon juice. Stir well. Add more lemon juice until the glaze is desired consistency.
Drizzle over cooled cookies.
(If second half of dough is too hard to roll out, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes.)
Notes
Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, I got about 30 cookies. How many cookies this recipe makes depends on how thick you roll them out and the size of your cookie cutter.
The glaze is the perfect way to top off these cookies. I placed the cooling rack with the cookies on a large cookie sheet. I started out by spooning on the glaze, but after about two cookies, I just picked up the bowl and drizzled it over the whole batch. I had them all glazed in less than a minute.
If you want just a basic shortbread cookie, it would work to leave out the lemon peel and lemon juice from the cookie dough. In place of the lemon juice, any kind of milk or cream could be substituted.
Lemon Shortbread Cookies for the Holidays
This is the perfect recipe for making Christmas cut-out cookies. Simply follow the recipe, but when it’s time to cut out the dough, use festive Christmas cookie cutters. After drizzling on the glaze, it’s very fun to add sprinkles or sanding sugar.
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The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour. The less you work the dough, the more crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth your shortbread cookies will be.
Butter is an emulsifier and it makes cookies tender. It also adds in the crispy-around-the-edges element. Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly.
Shortbread should always have a tender, melting texture, but be slightly crisp when you bite into it. It should not generally be damp or wet underneath. A classic shortbread recipe will also only have flour, butter and sugar as the ingredients (in a 3:2:1 ratio) and not egg, which could lead to excess moisture.
Step 3: The Secret to the Absolute Best Shortbread
After shaping the cookies, don't rush to the oven! Instead, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so (overnight is OK, too). A short stay in the fridge will firm up the cookies and solidify the butter. This will help keep them from spreading too much.
Spend extra when it really counts: If you're making a recipe where butter really is the star (think shortbread or biscuits), splashing out for a package of Kerrygold or Vital Farms is worth the expense. The fine differences in the flavor are most impactful in these recipes.
If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense. Many shortbread recipes call for cold butter worked into the dry ingredients and that gives you a wonderfully flaky cookie but if not mixed properly, the results can be inconsistent.
Piercing the shortbread with a fork is not only for decoration, but it's meant for more even baking. Poking holes in the shortbread allows the heat to penetrate the cookie, hence more even baking. Notice I'm using powdered sugar here. You'll see lots of shortbread recipes using granulated sugar.
Traditional Scottish shortbread is a simple recipe made with sugar, butter, flour, and salt. Other shortbread styles will include leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda, which makes them crisp instead of crumbly like traditional Scottish shortbread.
The word "bread" comes from "biscuit bread" which was made from leftover bread dough that was sweetened and dried out in the oven to make biscuits. Why do you poke holes in shortbread? The holes allow the moisture to escape during baking and more even heat distribution. This helps dry out and crisp up the cookies.
Use unsalted butter for balanced flavour. Unsalted butter was traditionally used in baking because it was a superior product to salted - salt is used as a preservative so unsalted butter was thought to be fresher.
Since you will be cooking your shortbread in the lower third of the oven, you will get some top browning as the cookie bakes. The surface of the shortbread should be a toasty light brown when it is cooked. It should never appear raw or slightly opaque in the middle.
Begin checking at the tail end of the cooking time. Undercooked shortbread will be doughy and chewy. Slightly overcooked and it will become chalky, brittle and hard.
Originally Answered: Can you put undercooked shortbread back in the oven again after it has cooled? You can but stand the chance of burning it on the outside. Lower the temperature slightly and watch it to make sure it doesn't over do.
Irish Shortbread Is Distinct From Scottish Shortbread
As cornstarch is a potent thickener relative to flour, this creates a denser cookie. Whichever version of shortbread you prefer, though, the original -- which is often just called "shortbread" -- came from Scotland.
These proportions make shortbread a lot more dense compared to cookies, which means you could easily end up with shortbread that's hard and crunchy rather than buttery and crumbly. Per Cooktop Cove, this can occur when the dough has either been overworked or not chilled for long enough.
Introduction: My name is Kimberely Baumbach CPA, I am a gorgeous, bright, charming, encouraging, zealous, lively, good person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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