Lemon Curd Shortbread Cookies

5 from 1 vote

Lemon Curd Shortbread Cookies are buttery, with a zesty tang. Quick to make using simple ingredients and store bought lemon curd.

Prep Time28

Cook Time12

Total Time40

Course: Cookie

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: lemon curd shortbread cookies, shortbread cookies with lemon curd

Servings:

Calories: 178kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

250 grams/ 2 sticks and 2 tablespoons butter unsalted, Note 1
1 teaspoon vanilla Note 2
1 cup/150 grams icing sugar Note 3
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups/300 grams plain flour
½ cup lemon curd Note 4

To serve (optional)

icing mixture to dust, Note 5

Instructions

Preheat the oven: preheat the oven to 160°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
Butter and vanilla: add the butter to a large mixing bowl, pour over the vanilla and then use electric beaters to beat until pale and creamy.
Icing sugar: next add the icing sugar and mix till consistently combined.
Flour: add half of the flour and mix it in then add the remaining half.
Roll and cut: place a long sheet of baking paper on the bench. Then transfer the raw shortbread from the bowl to the middle of the baking paper. Place another long sheet of baking paper on top of the dough and then use a rolling pin to roll it out flat. Once rolled, remove the top sheet of baking paper and use a cookie cutter to cut circle shapes for the cookies. Then use the larger end of a piping nozzle to cut a whole in the centre of half of the cookies.
Oven bake: place the cut cookies onto a silicon mat on a baking sheet. Then place them into the preheated oven (middle and bottom shelf). Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes or just when they are starting to look more gold than white. Use oven mitts to remove the baking sheets and place them onto a heatproof surface. Let them cool for a couple of minutes before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Dust and fill: use a small sieve to dust the top of the cookies with icing mixture. Then flip the bases over and use a teaspoon to spoon the lemon curd into the middle of each base (approx ½ teaspoon of lemon curd per cookie). Put a dusted top on each of the bases and gently push down to close.

Video

Notes

Note 1 - Butter: I always chop the butter into small cubes before beating. I find that this helps the beaters get in to it with more ease. I like to use unsalted butter and then add salt as a separate measured ingredient. If you only have salted butter and want to use that you can but then omit the additional salt.
Note 2 - Vanilla: I find that pouring the vanilla over the butter makes it easier/faster to soften and cream. This is especially helpful if the butter is still very firm and cold.
Note 3 - Icing sugar: this is different to icing mixture. Icing sugar is firmer and less easy to sift. The recipe uses icing sugar for the shortbread and icing mixture which is easier to sift for dusting.
Note 4 - Lemon curd: whilst I have made my own lemon curd from time to time I find for this recipe using store bought curd keeps things easy and convenient. We need about ½ jar.
Note 5 - Icing mixture: super easy to sift and dust onto the cookies for serving. You can omit dusting them if you want to keep them plain.
Note 6 - Dough and cookie size: I use a rolling pin with disks and use the 6mm disks. I use a 7cm (approx 2.8 inch) cookie cutter. I use a piping nozzle to cut the top hole and I use a skewer to push the dough out of the nozzle once it is cut.
Note 7 - Cook time: is only 12-14 minutes per baking sheet. You can fit all of the cookies onto 2 baking sheets to keep it as one cook time ie not have to use 3 baking sheets. The prep is simple and quick, however, there is a bit of work involved in rolling, cutting and transferring the cookies to the baking sheet. Hence the prep time is longer than the cook time.
Note 8: Leftover dough: once you have cut the initial cookies from the rolled dough, roll the leftover dough back together and use the rolling pin again to flatten this. Place it in the fridge for a bit if too soft and then cut more cookies from this. You can keep going to use up all of the dough with very little if any leftover at the end. If there is a small amount, I make one final irregular shaped cookie.

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