lemon thumbprints

Sweet, soft lemon thumbprints are filled with lemon curd and drizzled with lemon icing. Instead of homemade lemon curd, you can use store-bought; or substitute raspberry, strawberry, or apricot preserves/jam. This is a very soft and creamy butter cookie dough, so refrigerating it before shaping is imperative. A quick chill after shaping as the oven preheats is helpful, too.

Lemon Thumbprints

cornstarch

salt

Tablespoons (200 grams) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (see Note)

(150 grams) granulated sugar

lemon

lemon juice

egg,

vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

(100 grams) granulated sugar

(140 grams) homemade lemon curd

(120 grams) confectioners’ sugar

Tablespoons (30 milliliters) fresh lemon juice

Make the dough

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and salt until combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 1 minute. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, egg, and vanilla bean paste and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. The wet ingredients will look curdled, but will smooth out when you add the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Dough will be very creamy. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, and up to 3 days. Chilling is imperative for this soft dough.

Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Make room in the refrigerator for baking sheets, so the shape cookies can chill as the oven preheats in step 7.

Shape &amp; coat the dough

Place granulated sugar in a small bowl. Scoop cold dough (about 1 Tablespoon (18g) of dough each) and roll into balls. Roll each dough ball in granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets.

Fill the cookies

Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie dough ball. Fill each with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon curd.

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C)

. Place baking sheets with unbaked cookies in the refrigerator while the oven preheats. (Or transfer all cookies to 1 baking sheet, or a few plates, if your refrigerator doesn&#8217;t have room. I recommend chilling the shaped cookies for a few minutes, to prevent over-spreading.)

Once oven preheats, bake shaped cookies for 12–13 minutes, or until edges appear set and are very lightly beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the icing

In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners&#8217; sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle over cooled cookies. (You can use a spoon or fork for this, or a squeeze bottle.) Icing will set at room temperature after about 30 minutes, and then you can stack, store, transport, and gift the cookies.

Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.

This was a bit of a challenging recipe for me as I had some issues with spreading/curd spilling out while baking on several cookies, but most turned out well and the end result is really delicious. I think these will be a hit on my cookie tray at Christmas.

These cookies are spectacular!! So much lemon flavor. I did use premade lemon curd just because I had a lot going on with Christmas cookie baking and it made
 things easier. Highly recommend letting your formed and filled cookies sit back in the fridge for half an hour or so. I did and had no issues whatsoever  with overspreading.

I was worried after reading early reviews. I did a few things that I think helped keep me on track! I kept the dough chilled as I went through the roll, press, fill stages. I made deep indentations - sometimes following up with a knuckle press when my thumb failed me. I chilled unbaked cookies and trays 5-10 minutes before they went in the oven. And I think this might be the key - I used a quarter teaspoon to scoop the curd. I found with a half teaspoon, it was hard to get exactly the right amount. With a quarter, I could do heaping spoons and also not worry about whether every bit was scraped out of the spoon. Basically I think I tricked my brain into not overfilling them. Worked great!

Weird.  I made this today and it came out perfect. Not a waste for me! Found all my baking has improved from following her recipes. Sorry it didn't work out for you.  Merry Christmas!

I could drink the lemon icing! I ended up using raspberry jam because I love the raspberry/lemon combo. And the lemon curd recipe intimidated me a bit. These were a great hit in my holiday cookie box! I liked that I could adjust the size to make the dough stretch a bit too.

This is exactly what I have been looking for for a lemon cookie for my Christmas tree. Everyone raved about the flavor. I made lemon curd for the first time and it turned out really well. I but back in the refrigerator after I prepared them for baking

SO tasty! Mine definitely didn't turn out as pretty as the photo (they spread more and I whisked the homemade lemon curd too vigorously, making it bubbly and more beige than yellow), but they taste like lemon heaven! Will definitely make again.

Lovely tender cookie with quite a punch of lemon. Maybe too lemony for me personally? I think the next time I make them I'll use vanilla icing instead of the lemon icing. Otherwise this recipe was perfect.

I baked a batch of these today using raspberry jam as filling. They are perfect! Great flavour and thumbprints are much easier to make than I expected. I also baked "big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies" and both types are in a cookie box heading to my daughter at university. Sally your recipes are so reliable technically, thanks!

This recipe was so flavorful! My self proclaimed “Lemonholic “ neighbor loved the treat I left on her doorstep ! I also used the extra lemon curd to mix into my Greek yogurt as a treat !

Made these cookies for Easter Sunday. My family thinks they are great. The cookies have a wonderful lemon flavor and the sweetness from the drizzle on top balances it all out. They are easy to make, look beautiful, and are delicious.

These turned out very well. I used store bought curd, and did some with lemon curd and some with raspberry curd. I noticed people had issues with spreading, so I put the shaped cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking and that seem to do the trick. Also make sure you measure your flour properly! The cookies are very buttery. My glaze was a bit thin so that did spread out and didn’t leave the cute drizzle appearance, but still tasted good so I can’t complain.

These are spring in a cookie! Lemony, tender, and very cute.  They couldn't have turned out any better, if I say so myself. In order to achieve as-close-to-Sally results I always use a scale to measure ingredients when weights are given.  For this recipe I also weighed the dough balls for consistent cookie size.  I used a round half-teaspoon dipped in the rolling sugar, to make perfectly round little indents.  What I learned:  do not overfill the indentations.  The curd bubbles as the cookies bake and will spill out onto the baking mat and burn.  Not tragic but you'll lose some filling.  Also fix cracks  that occur when making the indentations - another filling escape route. This isn't a spur-of-the-moment cookie. There's lots of prep to these - making curd, zesting and squeezing, chilling, and shaping.  The result is delightful and a very satisfying accomplishment.

This cookie was definitely tasty, but not a looker.  I had the same problem as 90% of other commenters with spreading. For reference, I made both the curd and cookie dough a day before I baked them. Both of them were refrigerated overnight. Because of all the comments spreading, I additionally refrigerated for 2.5 hours after I rolled them into balls. I'm wondering if the spreading issue is more one of the lack of any leavening agent. I make thumbprint cookies frequently in a variety flavors and this is the only time I've had an issue with spreading. While my curd did not leak out of the cookie, I did find the texture a little gritty and sticky, and it paled quite a bit. I mad the lemon curd from this site and it turned out great and was delicious. I wonder if adding the curd midway through the bake, or simply at the end of the baking after they are cooled might alleviate that problem. In the end, they tasted very lemony and yummy, but I would not make them again as written.

The taste is amazing! But like others have commented, mine spread way too much. The 2nd time I made these, I put the filled cookies in the fridge for over an hour and they were still a mess.

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The most viewed lemon thumbprints recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine