Easy Lemon Shortbread Cookies

This Easy Lemon Shortbread Cookie recipe is definitely for the lemon lover and cookie lover. Zested lemons flavor these buttery slice-and-bake cookies, and a pretty yellow sanding sugar adds a delightful crunch. These are hard to resist the melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness.

If you love chewy cookies, these Iced Lemon Cookies are a must-try. Each bite bursts with fresh lemon flavor, both in the cookie and the sweet frosting.

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During the spring, the two lemon trees in my backyard produce an abundance of lemons.  The limbs start drooping from the weight, which is good since it makes reaching the tall branches easier. I love my trees, but picking the lemons requires full body armor because lemon trees are notorious for having thick and super pointy thorns.   Since I have deer in my yard, this is one thing they won’t eat, so my lemons are safe. However, the rest of my garden is fair game.

Every spring, my two lemon trees produce an abundance of lemons, and the branches start sagging under the weight, which is a good thing because I can reach the high ones without hauling out a ladder. The downside? Those limbs are covered in thorns sharp enough to punch through denim, so I picking lemons is dangerous. The deer leave the trees alone (the rest of my garden is fair game, though), which means I’ve got more lemons than any sane person should.

Once I pick the lemons, I pull out my go-to lemon shortbread recipe. I’ll mix up a few batches, bake one for the week, and stash the rest of the dough in the freezer for a quick slice-and-bake cookie fix later on.

If you’ve got extra lemons to use up, I like to make a quick lemon posset too. It’s a simple, no-bake dessert that comes together with just cream, sugar, and lemon juice and is great to have in the fridge.

Cookie Ingredients

These cookies take four ingredients. To make them extra special, you can roll the dough in colored sugar for a bit of sparkle.

How To Make Lemon Shortbreads

Did I mention how easy these cookies are to make? Another reason to love them.

For this heavy dough, it is best to use a stand mixer. However, you can start the recipe with a handheld mixer and stir in the flour with a wooden spoon.

Step 1. Measure the sugar into a medium-sized bowl and zest the lemons over the sugar.  Then, with your fingers, mix the lemon zest and sugar.  This releases the oils in the lemon zest, flavoring the sugar.

I make lemon sugar and keep it on hand for other recipes.

Step 2. Add the butter to a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until it’s fluffy.

Step 3. Mix in the lemon-sugar mixture, then add the flour and mix until no flour is visible.

Step 4. When the dough is made, divide it in half and roll it into logs about 2 inches wide. If you are rolling the cookies in colored sanding sugar, you should do that now.  You want the dough logs to be warm from rolling, so the sugar will stick to the dough.

See below for how to color the sanding sugar.⬇️

Step 5. Wrap the logs in wax paper and chill for about an hour.  At this point, you can wrap these cookie rolls in plastic for another day or place them in freezer bags to freeze for later.

Step 6. Preheat the oven to 300°F. After the cookies have chilled, cut the dough logs into 1/4″ slices and place them on baking pans; bake for 30 minutes.
If you are baking with frozen dough, let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes, then slice and bake as directed. That’s it—shortbreads are so easy.

Why do you chill shortbread cookies?

Shortbread cookies contain a large amount of butter, and chilling the dough before baking solidifies the butter.  If you don’t chill the dough, the cookies will melt too fast in the oven and lose their shape.

If you want to roll the dough in colored sugar, do this immediately after rolling it into logs.   You have to do this while your cookie dough is warm so the sugar will stick to it.

Want to learn how to measure lemon juice and lemon zest for recipes? Make sure to read these lemon tips.

What do you do with the lemons once you zest them? Just cut them in half and juice them using a citrus reamer. You can make a small glass of lemonade or freeze the lemon juice to use for later.

Do you want more shortbread recipes?

• Rose Flavored Shortbread Cookies have a hint of rose flavor baked right in and these cookies are topped with rose petals.
• Spiced Shortbread Cookies have the spicy flavors of chai with sweet chai icing.

Baking supplies for this recipe

I love using white sanding sugar on my cookies for extra flavor and decor, and I use gel food coloring to tint your sugar with all these pretty colors.

Don’t forget to pin to your cookie board on Pinterest

Recipe

First published: March 17, 2019; last updated: July 7, 2024, for better readability.

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