These lemon shortbread cookies are tender, buttery, and filled with bright lemon flavor. They're easy to make in one bowl with 7 simple ingredients!
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These lemon shortbread cookies have a buttery, zesty lemon flavor and delicious melt-in-your-mouth texture. Just like my classic shortbread cookies, they have a simple dough made from flour, butter, sugar, and salt. Fresh lemon juice and zest give them a lovely citrusy pop.
I love how easy this recipe is. These lemon shortbread cookies come together in one bowl, and most of the time, chilling the dough isn’t necessary.
If you like, you can make a quick lemon glaze to give the cookies an extra burst of lemon flavor, but they’re also perfect plain—tender, bright, and lightly sweet. I hope you love them as much as I do!
Lemon Shortbread Cookies Ingredients
When I was testing this recipe, I made a ton of lemon shortbread cookies. I tried vegan and gluten-free shortbread cookie recipes with different oils and flours, all sorts of things. During the process, I was stressing out. Some cookies were dry, some were burned, and some flattened out like pancakes (not the good kind). I’m just lucky that Jack, being the kind taste tester that he is, made sure not a crumb went to waste.
So what did I end up with? A straightforward, delightful lemon shortbread cookie recipe. Here’s what’s in it:
- All-purpose flour – Sometimes complicated problems demand simple solutions. I tried all sorts of flours in this recipe, but good old all-purpose yielded the best results every time. Spoon and level it to avoid packing too much into your measuring cup.
- Butter – It gives these lemon shortbread cookies a delicious buttery flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Sugar – For sweetness. I typically use natural cane sugar, but regular granulated sugar works well too.
- Fresh lemon juice and zest – They fill these cookies with bright lemon flavor. I especially love these cookies with Meyer lemon juice and zest, which add a sweeter, almost floral note to the dough.
- Fresh thyme – My twist. 🙂 I adore the combination of lemon and thyme in these cookies. It’s so surprising and refreshing. I think you’re going to love it too, but you can also skip the thyme if you prefer a classic lemon shortbread.
- And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Lemon Shortbread Cookies
The recipe is simple and straightforward. Here’s how it goes:
First, make the dough. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, followed by the fresh lemon zest, lemon juice, and thyme. Mix again. Then, add the dry ingredients—the flour and salt—and mix until just combined.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten it into a 1″ disk. If it’s sticky, wrap it up and chill it for 15 to 30 minutes, or until it’s firm, but still pliable.
Next, roll out the dough and cut out the cookies. My favorite part! Aim for the dough to be about 1/4″ thick. Then, use cookie cutters to cut out any shapes you like. Like in my cut-out Christmas sugar cookie recipe, I recommend starting at the edges of the dough and working inwards, puzzling together the cutters to cut out as many cookies as you can. Transfer the cut-outs to parchment-lined baking sheets, and re-roll the scraps to make more cookies.
Then, bake! Transfer the cookies to a 350°F preheated oven, and bake until the edges are starting to turn light brown. Transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips and Variations
- Soften the butter at room temperature. Creaming the butter gives these cookies a perfect light texture, and it makes it possible to roll out the dough to make cut-outs. In order to cream the butter, it needs to be soft, but not melted. To soften your butter, you’ll need to plan ahead. Remove it from the fridge, set it on the counter, and let it sit for an hour while it comes to room temperature. I don’t recommend softening it in the microwave—it’s easy to accidentally go too far and partially melt it in the process.
- Bake one sheet at a time. Temperatures vary throughout an oven, so baking one sheet at a time is the best way to ensure that your cookies bake evenly. You don’t want ones on the bottom rack to burn before the top rack starts to brown! Pop any cut-outs that don’t make it onto the first sheet in the fridge until you’re ready to bake them.
- Add a lemon glaze, if you like. To give these cookies an extra pop of citrus flavor, top them with my quick lemon glaze once they cool. It’s easy to make with 2 ingredients—lemon juice and powdered sugar. You could even sprinkle a little extra lemon zest on top.
- Use a different citrus. I love the lemon flavor in these shortbread cookies, but they work just as nicely with other citrus too! Try using orange zest and juice (see these orange shortbread cookies) or lime zest and juice instead.
How to Store Lemon Shortbread Cookies
The lemon shortbread cookies keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
They also freeze well. Allow them to cool completely, then seal them in an airtight container or bag and freeze for up to 3 months. They thaw in around 30 minutes at room temp!
More Cookie Recipes to Try
If you love these lemon shortbread cookies, try one of these cookies next:
- Easy Sugar Cookies
- Chewy Molasses Cookies
- Mexican Wedding Cookies
- Oatmeal Cookies
- Or any of these 17 Easy Cookie Recipes!
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ⅓ cup cane sugar
- Zest of 1 medium lemon
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped (optional)
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Next, add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and thyme, if using, and mix again. Finally, add the flour and salt and mix until just combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten into a 1” disk. If the dough is sticky, wrap and chill for 15 to 30 minutes until firm but still pliable.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about ¼“ thick. If desired, you can roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Use 2” cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes. Transfer to the baking sheet and bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Keep any extra cut-out cookies in the fridge until ready to bake.
- Remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. Store at room temperature for up to 5 days.
This sounds nice but what size cup are you using and how packed full of flour is it? I’ve found that baking recipes are not as forgiving as recipes for meals so if I get the proportions wrong the cookies are no good. Please just weigh your flour, butter etc in between measuring your volume and adding it to your mixture, then we’ll all be able to follow your recipes too. Otherwise there’s too much guesswork for me to risk wasting the ingredients.
Hi Tia, for our recipes, you can use 125 grams for a cup of flour.
I love these! AND, I wish measurements in weights were included as well as the usual. Without the weights, it’s impossible for this recipe to be consistent!
If you’ve since added the weights, please lnk. Thanks!
Hi Andrea, so glad you love the recipe! Thanks for your feedback on the weight measurements.
Can these be made gluten free?
Hi Linda, I’ve never tried making a gf version of this recipe, but a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend might work. I like King Arthur’s.
Why use cups for measurements?
These cookies were very easy to make and delicious! I was disappointed though that I only got 16 cookies and not the 30 that the recipe says. I used a 2” cookie cutter and rolled the dough slightly thinner than 1/4”
Me too!
Hi can you please let me know the measurements for all the ingredients please
Hi, you can find them in the recipe card at the bottom of the post!
Can this be rolled into a log and sliced?
Hi Elizabeth, I haven’t tried it, but I think it would work! You may need to chill the dough in that case.
Loved these cookies! Nice and lemony, but I didn’t taste the thyme as much as I’d expect – would recommend letting the dough sit for a longer amount of time to let the flavors infuse. Otherwise delicious – made them for friends and they were fans!
So glad you enjoyed them, Abby!
used limes instead of lemon and vegan butter, turned out perfect
Made these for friends as a thank you treat. The taste and the texture are perfect!
Hi Rita, I’m glad everyone enjoyed them!
I tucked a sprig of thyme in the sugar a couple of days before I made the dough. I’m freezing the dough for my back to school cookie tray, but I baked one cookie for my husband
He loved it.
Aww so glad he loved it!
Sadly these did not turn out well. The flavour was underwhelming and not a buttery shortbread taste whatsoever.
Two substitutions that I made were vegan butter and rosemary for the thyme. Otherwise I followed the instructions, and they turned out great! I love the lemon flavors from the juice and zest. Definitely keep the dough or cut cookies in the fridge while waiting to put them in the oven.
I’m glad you loved them!
I followed the directions exactly and my cookies came out brown on the bottom and not cooked through. I turned it down to 325° and got better results.
I have fresh rosemary. What do you think? 🤔
Gingerbread cookies are chilling right now.
My grandmother didn’t like anything plain vanilla; she made lemon treats. Lemon ice cream in thesummer, summerandlemon sugarcookiesatChristmas. These remind me of hers.
Hi Jodi, what a sweet memory, I’m glad you enjoyed them.
can I make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate before baking?
yep!