Zesty and sweet, bright and buttery these Lemon Curd Cookies are a lemon lover's dream. These are melt in mouth soft, super cute and filled with lemon curd in the middle.
Best to bake during summer, ideal to brighten gloomy-grey days and perfect on your cookie trays too. Bake along side these Gingerbread Cookies, readers most favorite Whipped Shortbread and these Pecan Pie Cookies.
If you are looking for more Christmas Baking Inspiration, find all my Favorite Christmas Cookies at one place.
Ingredients Needed:
- Butter: We will begin with very soft room temperature unsalted butter. Soft butter here makes sure that all the ingredients incorporate well in the dough. Also, the formed cookie dough won't be on the harder side. It is that one thing you should always remember while making shortbread or butter cookies of any sort!
- Confectioners Sugar: You will require divided sugar for this recipe. Once we will add the sugar in cookie dough. Then secondly after your cookies are baked, you will dust them with more powdered/confectioners' sugar for looks.
- Lemon: We will use lemon zest in the cookie dough. Make sure either to use organic lemons or wash them really well before zesting them.
- Flour: All purpose flour is the base of this recipe. It provides cookies their structure.
- Egg: An egg used at room temperature tenderizes the dough as well as help with the binding.
- Vanilla: I like to add a teaspoon of vanilla to this dough. I am sure you will love it too here!
- Lemon Curd: You can use store bought lemon curd or make your own at home. This recipe will require less than ½ a jar of store bought curd. If you choose to make your own, try this Microwave Lemon Curd Recipe. It is even easier to make than your regular curd!
Make the Lemon Curd First:
I suggest making lemon curd before you make the cookie dough, if you are making your own. That way your curd will get a plenty of time to cool down before you bake with it.
You can make it in microwave or on stove top too. The stove top method doesn't take more than 10 minutes either.
Making the cookie dough:
This dough comes together pretty quickly. You simply beat butter and sugar till it gets light and is creamed well. Quickly add and mix the egg in. Form the cookie dough by mixing in the dry ingredients.
Chill the cookie dough for a minimum of 60 minutes. Or until it sets well and doesn't stick any longer.
Shaping and filling the cookie balls:
Once the dough has chilled well, form about a tablespoon sized balls out of the dough. Make an indentation in the middle of each ball using your thumb or with the back of a teaspoon.
Fill each cookie ball with around 1 teaspoon lemon curd and bake the cookies then.
How to zest a lemon?
Always begin by washing the lemons thoroughly. Zest lemons using a micro plane grater. If you are going to use the juice of lemons too for a recipe, zest them first and juice the lemons later. It won't be a fun task to attempt to zest the lemons after you cut them.
If you liked this cookie recipe, please give it a star review! Also, tell me in the comments below, how did it turn out for you! How did your family or guests like it? How did you personalize it? And don’t forget to share your wonderful creations with me on Instagram at #greedyeatsblog Let's be friends on Pinterest and Facebook too!
More Lemon Desserts you will love:
Recipe
Lemon Curd Cookies
Equipment
- Hand/stand Mixer
- Cookie Sheets
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Butter
- 1 Cup Confectioners' sugar
- 1 large Egg
- 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon Cornstarch
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
- 2 and ¼ Cups All purpose flour
To Fill the cookies before Baking:
- ⅓-½ Cup Lemon Curd
To Dust:
- 2 Tablespoons Confectioners' sugar
Instructions
Making the Dough:
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Make some room in the freezer for cookie balls to chill prior to baking. In a large mixing bowl, using a handheld or stand mixer at medium-high speed, beat room temperature butter and confectioners' sugar for 2-3 minutes.
- Next add and beat in the egg, lemon zest and vanilla till well combined, for about a minute. Scrape sides and the bottom of the bowl as required.
- Now it's time for dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, cornstarch and salt in a separate bowl and add it to the dough mix. Mix on low speed just until the dry ingredients disappear into wet. The dough will be very creamy at this stage. Cover and chill it for a minimum of 60 minutes (or up to 3 days) in refrigerator.
Shaping the Dough:
- Take the chilled dough out of refrigerator, scoop a tablespoon of the dough and roll it into ball. Place it on the pre-lined baking cookie sheet. Repeat till all the dough is used up. Place cookie balls 2 inches apart. You will get around 36-38 cookie dough balls out of this dough.
Filling the Cookie Dough Balls:
- Make an indentation using your thumb (or a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon) in the center of each cookie ball. Fill them with about ½ - 1 teaspoon of lemon curd.
Chill the Cookie Balls as the oven Preheats:
- Place cookie sheets in the freezer as oven preheats. (Alternatively you can transfer all dough balls to a single baking sheet or a few plates, if your freezer doesn’t have room for cookie trays.) Chilling shaped cookies dough balls prevents over-spreading of the cookies as they bake.Preheat oven to 350 ℉. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. The cookies will be just set and their edges will begin to turn golden.
- Take cookies out of oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie tray. Then shift them to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely before storing. While the cookies are cooling on the wire rack, dust them with confectioners' sugar by placing the sugar in a sieve.
Paula
Looooved how zesty these lemon curd cookies are! My family really enjoyed them.
Gustavo
Your lemon curd cookie recipe hit the spot! The balance of tart lemon curd with the sweet base was just perfect, and I appreciate how simple the instructions were to follow. It was a delightful treat to enjoy in the afternoon with a cup of tea. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
Kim
There are not enough words to express how much I loved these cookies! They were perfect in every way!
Chenee
Thes are seriously some of the best looking cookies I've ever seen. I love lemon anything but these look so good!
Vicky
These Lemon Curd Cookies were buttery, soft, and full of lemon flavor! Sweet and tart, they make a perfect snack!