Easy Lemon Shortbread Cookies

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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.

When I have fresh lemons, I like to bake these cookies. The dough freezes well, so making several batches and freezing them for later is worth it.

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

• Butter - unsalted is best, but if you have salted butter, use it.
• Sugar - just white granulated sugar for this recipe.
• Cake Flour - this will make these cookies nice and tender.
• Lemons - needed for the lemon zest.

Optional, But Worth It

• Sanding Sugar - used to coat the outside of the cookies for flavor and crunch, and it looks really pretty, too!
• Food Coloring - make sure it's yellow

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 and flavors 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 the colored sanding sugar, you need to 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 put them in freezer bags to freeze for later.

Step 6. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. After the cookies have chilled, cut the dough logs into ¼" slices and place them on baking pans; bake for 30 minutes.

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.

I like to roll these cookies in colored sanding sugar for an extra touch. This step is optional, but I enjoy the color and crunch it adds to the shortbreads. Since I bake often, I keep white sanding sugar on hand and color it to match my creations. You can also use regular sugar, but it won't bake quite as well as sanding sugar.

What is sanding sugar?

Sanding sugar is large, sparkly sugar crystals that do not dissolve in baking and add a nice little crunch to your baked goods.

Try sprinkling sanding sugar on top of all types of baked goods, such as bread, scones, turnovers, or muffins.

How to make colored sanding sugar

It is easy and actually kind of fun to color the sugar. Put your sugar in a bowl, add a few drops of gel food coloring and stir. Pretty amazing!

If you want to roll the dough in the colored sugar, do this immediately after you roll it into the 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.

• 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.

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

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

Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog. Please leave a comment to say hello or tell me what you are baking; I always love hearing from fellow bakers. Do you have any questions or want to chat about the recipe? Please visit my About page for information, and I’ll be happy to help!

From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending. Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing sweet and savory family-friendly recipes for your cooking and baking inspiration.