Lemon Curd Cookies

These Lemon Curd Cookies taste absolutely amazing! The tangy filling combined with the tender buttery cookie creates a delicious mini dessert that can be enjoyed any time you need a little pick-me-up!

What could be more refreshing than a lemon dessert? Just like my Lemon Pizzelle and Lemon Yogurt cake, these cookies have just the right amount of tangy sweetness to brighten your day.

 If you’re like me, a big fan of lemon flavors, then you are going to want to make these Lemon Curd Cookies as soon as possible! This recipe uses my homemade lemon curd which is extra tangy but for an easy variation, use store bought lemon curd.

These are also known as lemon curd thumbprint cookies. If you’ve never heard of thumbprint cookies, they are simply cookies that are pressed with your thumb or some other device to make an indentation. The indentation is filled with curd or some other type of filling and then baked. 

What you’ll love about this recipe is that the filling is baked along with the shortbread cookies. Many recipes fill the cookies after baking which is fine if you eat them all at once which you may and I won’t judge you for it! But storing lemon curd cookies with an unbaked filling gets tricky because the filling can spill out and the cookies don’t stack to pack into a container.

If you want the best Lemon Curd Cookies ever, then don’t look any further. These were given the highest votes at a recent family gathering. And you know your family will always tell the truth!

Another favorite delicious treat in my house is my Italian macarons and Italian butter cookies, my whole family loves them. Plus these gluten free Almond Flour Cookies as well as the almond flour peanut butter cookie variation are all popular at Christmas time!

Be sure to also make my delicious coffee cookies and Norwegian cookies while you are making cookies, they are so yummy!

Ingredients

• Salted butter - For these cookies, salted butter has the perfect amount of salt to bring out the butteriness of the dough. The dough is the one I use for my Christmas shortbread cookies and all types of thumbprint cookies.
• White sugar -  I like to use superfine white sugar because it dissolves more easily. 
• Lemon zest - Just the yellow part and finely grated. All the wonderful lemon oils are in the yellow skin and the flavor is different to the juice. Adding lemon zest to the dough is a good way of layering and accenting the lemon flavor.
• All purpose flour - Regular plain flour with no raising agent in it is perfect. 
• Lemon curd - Use my lemon curd recipe which uses freshly squeezed lemon juice for the best taste and tang in your lemon curd cookies. But don’t worry if you don’t have time to make your own. 

See the recipe card for quantities.

Substitutions

• Butter -  If you only have unsalted butter, add about ¼ teaspoon of standard fine table salt.
• White sugar - use powdered sugar instead if that’s all you have.
• Lemon curd - Buy a good quality, store bought lemon curd and these lemon curd cookies with still be amazing!

Variations

Basically, these are lemon curd thumbprint cookies and as with most thumbprint cookies, the fillings can vary.

• Orange, passion fruit or lime curd also works well as a filling.
• Use raspberry, strawberry or plum jam instead of lemon curd.
• Fill the indentation with chocolate hazelnut spread like Nutella!

You can also substitute two teaspoons of vanilla extract in the dough for the lemon zest for a mellow vanilla flavor.

Equipment

Whenever you’re baking cookies, be sure to use baking sheets that have low sides for proper heat and air flow around the cookies. Baking sheets with high sides are often the culprit of cookie baking failures.

Storage

These lemon curd cookies can be left at cool room temperature for a day or so. For longer storage especially on warm days, keep refrigerated in an airtight container with a layer of parchment paper between the cookies. I like to bring them back to room temperature before serving but if you’re just snatching one on the run, that’s not completely necessary!

Tips for Success and FAQ’s

As with most baking recipes, having the ingredients for the cookie dough at room temperature is important. This means that the butter and sugar will be well mixed and incorporate lots of air to make the cookies lighter and bake evenly.

I’m a bit pedantic about the size of the cookies so I’ll end up weighing the dough to get the cookies evenly sized. You don’t have to do this but pay attention to the size of the cookies when you are shaping them and follow my instruction in the recipe card below. These shouldn’t be huge. You want a good proportion of cookies to filling.

When shaping the cookies, roll the dough into a smooth ball and make the indentation carefully. Push straight down but only halfway. Make the indentation wide and shallow rather than narrow and deep. Cracks will cause the filling to ooze out of the indentation.

While we need room temperature ingredients to make the cookie dough, don’t skip the freezing step. Once the cookies are shaped and filled, be sure to pop the cookies into the freezer for just 15 minutes. This truly makes all the difference. The cookies keep their shape and bake perfectly.