Lemon Shortbread

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 40 mins
  • Yield: 36shortbread

    • About This Recipe

    “Melt in your mouth, tangy lemon taste. Hard to resist!! Freezes wellI’ve never made these with the poppy seeds, only with the lemon rind, we love it, nice tangy taste and melt in your mouth. They have become a traditional Christmas item paired with the traditional shortbread.”

    Ingredients

  • 1cupall-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cupcornstarch
  • 1/2 cupicing sugar
  • 2tablespoonsgrated fresh lemon rind
  • 3/4 cupbutter, softened

    • Directions

  • Combine flour, corn starch, icing sugar and lemon rind in a large bowl.
  • With large spoon, blend in butter.
  • Work with hands until a soft, smooth dough forms.
  • roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
  • Cut in shapes with cookie cutters.
  • Place on ungreased baking sheets.
  • Sprinkle with coloured sugars if desired.
  • Bake at 300 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
  • Remove from sheet, cool completely.
  • Variation: Lemon Almond- Add 3/4 cup finely chopped unblanched almonds to dough or Lemon poppyseed- Add 1 tablespoon poppy seeds to dough.

    • Reviews

  • “We liked these very much.They do have a melt-in-your-mouth texture, which I love – and I’m a sucker for lemon in anything and loved the light lemony taste in these.I made cookie sandwiches with some of these, filling with raspberry jam, and that was delicious, too.”

  • “I love this type of cookie! So tender! Mine did crumble a bit, but hey, that’s what napkins are for. lol Such a good flavor, and so easy to make. I put these in my Christmas Cookie basket this year. Made for KK’s 24 Days of Cookies event.”

  • “These were definitely melt in your mouth! A very good cookie with a pretty strong lemon flavor. I didn’t do cookie cutters but rather just rolled the dough into a log and cut. I think my dough was far to sticky to actually roll out anyways. Made very flat cookie, but they were still good. Thank you.”

  • “wow!spectacular.i didn’t think i was much of a lemon cookie person but these set me straight!the texture is definitely melt in your mouth ad the smell of the dough was intoxicating!i used a gluten-free flour, so was unable to roll, just dropped dough down and patted into 1/4 thickness, which worked just fine, they baked up perfectly flat and round.so easy!thanks derf!”

  • “These were melt in your mouth GOOD! I mixed everything together, and following another reviewer’s suggestion, I added the juice from 1 lemon (2 tbsp.) to expedite mixing. I then rolled mine in a log, and put it in the fridge, to chill. I baked for 20 minutes, and used my sil-pats, for ease of removal. I may have sliced mine a bit thin, as my yield was closer to 50, but more cookies is NOT a problem 😀 ! These were so tender; I think they would be perfect with a dab of lemon curd, or even some raspberry jam! Thanks so much for sharing, Derf! Made for Fall PAC ’09.”

  • “Gorgeously lemony and definitely melt in the mouth. I made these after a rather traumatic job interview.Working the dough did the trick to calm me down, and the bright flavour perked me right up. Had some trouble getting my cut out cookies off the worksurface, so changed technique and rolled the dough into cylinders, zapped them in the freezer, then sliced the firm dough thinly. Sprinkled them with a little caster sugar before baking, just for a little sparkle.”

  • “Wow, they were really short and lemony and buttery. I followed Mascha’s example and added lemon juice. Very delicious. I have a problem – very crumbly. Could it be the juice I added? I don’t know but as I will be baking this recipe very often I will find out.”

  • “I was craving cookies but didn’t want to make a huge batch. I changed the number to 10 cookies. I changed the recipe a little, I used the rind of an entire lemon, plus the dough was very hard to form a ball with so I added the juice of half the lemon. I also didn’t have powdered sugar so I used regular white sugar. They came out AMAZIG lemony!!!! LOVE them. Will make this more often! Btw, it turned out to be more like 20 cookies.”

  • “These are little gems!What a wonderful, subtle lemon flavour! I just loved these….only problem is that I only made 1 batch….sure wish I had doubled the recipe !Thanks so much….I’ve added these to my Christmas cookie tray !”

  • “AFter reading the prior reviews, I knew I had to try these!!Everyone mentioned ‘melt in your mouth’and that’s exactly what I was looking for!I used an addtitional tbls of lime zest (along with the 2 tbls lemon zest)What a lovely shortbread!They aren’t too sweet, it’s just how we like them!Thank you Derf!!”

  • “Hey there Derf! I made these yesterday and even added a bit of lemon extract but still really couldnt taste the lemon. They DO melt in your mouth though and my son liked them so that makes them OK by me and earns them an extra star! 🙂 “

  • “These were okay. I tried it with poppyseeds.The texture was good- really melts in your mouth. However I didn’t like lemon flavor.It wasn’t very clean tasting and had a strange aftertaste. I don’t really know how to describe it any better. Overall, it would be fine in an assortment of different cookies but I wouldn’t serve them alone. Just not that fantastic. “

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