The Best Ever Pink Lemonade Thumbprint Cookies

Name: The Best Ever Pink Lemonade Thumbprint Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 26 min
Total time: 46 min
Yield: 24
Ingredients: 2&1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted plus more for sprinkling over cookies; 1 teaspoon sea salt; 1 cup (two sticks), unsalted room temperature butter; 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon zest (2-3 medium lemons); 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice; 1 fresh raspberry

by Jennifer

24 cookies

46 min

You are going to fall in love with this pink lemonade thumbprint cookie. I was eating the icing with a spoon! This is a perfect cookie to make for Valentine's Day or bridal showers.

the best ever pink lemonade thumbprint cookies

Pink Lemonade Thumbprint cookies are simple to make. This is basically a shortbread dough imprinted with your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon and filled with a three-ingredient icing.

One of the icing ingredients is a single, fresh raspberry.

You'll blend the raspberry into confectioner's sugar and lemon juice until it the raspberry has broken up and your icing turns pink!

This pink lemonade icing is so good I ate it with a spoon--after filling the thumbprint cookies of course...

Watch to find out how to make pink lemonade icing for these Pink Lemonade Thumbprint Cookies.

The Best Ever Pink Lemonade Thumbprint Cookies

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Recipe details

Yield 24 cookies
Time spent: Prep time: 20 Minutes Cook time: 26 Minutes Total time: 46 min

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% Daily value

Instructions

In a large bowl sift the confectioner's sugar and set aside.
Measure flour and salt and one cup of the sugar into a medium bowl and set aside.
Zest the lemons using a Microplane grater over a piece of wax paper until you get two tablespoons. The wax paper will help with cleanup and getting every last bit of the zest saved.
Once the lemons are zested, slice in half and juice over a small bowl using a sturdy fork or a citrus reamer. Set aside.
In another large bowl, using a hand mixer or a stand mixer on medium speed, beat butter, 1/4 cup of the confectioner's sugar, the lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice until pale, about three minutes. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and blend until just combined.
Scoop the dough and roll into one-inch balls using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon. Place the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet about two inches apart. You should get 12 balls of dough on a tray. Freeze for ten minutes or until firm.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325 F.
Pull the cookies out of the freezer and bake for ten minutes.
Pull out after ten minutes and carefully without applying too much pressure, make a shallow indentation on top of each cookie using either a rounded teaspoon or your thumb.
Once you've made your indentations, put cookies back in the oven for 15 to 16 minutes.
While cookies are on their second bake, make the icing in a bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer or use a whisk. I'm lazy so I used my stand mixer.
Whisk 1&1/4 cups confectioner's sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice and the single raspberry together until smooth and pink.
Remove cookies from oven and let cool on a baking rack before dusting with confectioner's sugar and filling with icing.
Let the icing set up at least 20 minutes before packaging.

Tips

Don't skip over the step of freezing the balls of dough before baking. This will help them keep their shape.
No eggs used in the making of this cookie.
No granulated sugar used either--just confectioner's sugar.
Fresh lemon juice is a must.

Comments

Gill on Jan 09, 2021

I’ve read and re-read the instructions 5 times and still don’t understand how a bowl of flour, salt, and sugar becomes dough without liquid. Am I missing something? No I didn’t watch the video. No time for that.

8 Reply
- See 6 previous
- Kristie Quintana Lopez on Jan 09, 2021
  
  It says to juice a lemon. 1/4 cup of it.
  
  Like
- Gill on Jan 10, 2021
  
  Yes, but that is for the icing sugar, not the dough?
  Or is some for the dough as well?
  There's a medium bowl with flour, salt, and sugar.
  And there's a large bowl with butter, confectioner's sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. I assumed that was the icing.
  Nowhere does it say that these bowls are to be combined??
  But then again there's another bowl with confectioner's sugar, more lemon juice, and a raspberry further on.
  I'm not a confident cook. I need step-by-step instructions that are clear and concise
  
  1
- Dub Chenzor on Jan 10, 2021
  
  Gill, the recipe says 2 Tablespoons of juice in the cookie dough and 2 Tablespoons in the icing. That equals a quarter cup of juice. But as an experienced cook, I have advice and it isn’t meant to be condescending. Read the instructions very carefully before you start to cook. If it still just doesn’t sound right and you really want to try it anyway, look for similar recipes (online, in cookbooks, whatever). If the recipe you’re interested in is terribly different than others you’ve found then pass on it. As you become more confident, you’ll figure out how to adjust the “questionable” recipes to work for YOU. And then again, sometimes, you just have to jump in there and give that questionable recipe a try. Yes, you’re out some ingredients and some time, but you’ve learned something as a cook.
  
  2
- April on Jan 10, 2021
  
  Sorry, Gill, I should’ve replied directly to you. See my comment above. You are right in that a step is missing.
  
  1
- FMasMac on Jan 10, 2021
  
  Gill, some cookie recipes don’t require liquid or eggs to form a dough; shortbread, for example, only uses butter, sugar and flour. The butter sort of takes on the role of binding into a dough when creamed with the sugar and flour. The recipe looks good, but with missing steps, it’s confusing. I don’t think her sugar measurements add up, either. Shame. Separating the dough and the icing instructions would be helpful, too.
  
  Please don’t be discouraged! Read over the ingredients and the instructions of a recipe first, and if it doesn’t make sense, there is likely another one on the internet that does.
  
  Good luck!
  
  1
- Mary Fochtman Wetzel on Jan 10, 2021
  
  Traditional shortbread contain only sugar, butter and flour.
  They can be given different flavors with citrus rind, extracts or nuts.
  
  Shortbread cookies are simple, plain and in my opinion a pleasing cookie.
  
  3
- Jennifer on Jan 16, 2021
  
  I am so sorry. There is a missing step, which I have now added. You add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/lemon juice mixture and stir to combine.
  
  2
April on Jan 10, 2021

This sounds like a great recipe! I think Gill’s confusion is valid though. I’ve made basic scotch shortbread 200 times & there is no liquid. It’s simply butter, sugar & flour! However...there is a step missing in these instructions (between 5 & 6). They’ve skipped the step of adding the medium sized bowl of flour/sugar/salt TO the large bowl of creamed butter/sugar/lemon. That part is, indeed, necessary to create a dough. If the author could revise by adding that step, it would be much clearer.

5 Reply
- See 1 previous
- FMasMac on Jan 10, 2021
  
  The recipe looks good, but with missing steps, it’s confusing. I don’t think her sugar measurements add up, either. Shame. Separating the dough and the icing instructions is helpful.
  
  2
- Jennifer on Jan 16, 2021
  
  Thanks for your help April, I've corrected the recipe. And you're right, separating the ingredients for the icing would be a lot clearer. :)
  
  1