Easy Lemon Shortbread Biscuits

These easy lemon shortbread biscuits are crisp and buttery with the perfect snap and crumble, and an irresistibly fresh citrus flavour.

They’re the perfect accompaniment to ice cream or sorbet, or you can pop a few on a saucer to enjoy with your afternoon tea. 

To make my lemon shortbread, you’ll combine flour, lemon zest and a touch of sugar, then add cold butter and rub together until you have a crumb.

You’ll then cut in just a few drops of water to bring everything together into a buttery dough. 

Now, shortbread is so called because of its ‘short’, crumbly texture, which is the result of a high fat content dough.

To get a really light, delicious end result, it’s important not to over-handle your dough as all that butter can warm up in your hands and become greasy, which spoils the final texture.

For this recipe, I recommend forming the dough into an cylinder and chilling.

This means very little handling as you can slice the cookies off the log and straight onto a baking sheet, and you won’t need to use a rolling pin or dig out your cookie cutters. 

Shortbread cookies don’t need long to bake, so they’ll be out of the oven in no time, but be sure to let them cool completely before digging in.

Unlike a typical American-style cookie, shortbread doesn’t lend well to being eaten warm, but cools to crisp, crumbly perfection. 

Read on for the full recipe with detailed instructions and a helpful photograph for every step. And if you have any questions, just leave me a comment. Enjoy!

Instructions

Put the sugar (reserving 2 tbsp for later) in a bowl and add the finely grated lemon zest.

Rub together with your hands to help release the lemon oils.

Add the flour and cold, cubed butter.

Rub together until you have an even crumb.

Add 1 tbsp of cold water and cut through with a cutlery knife. Give a little bit of the mixture a squeeze. If it comes together, it’s ready. If it’s dry and sandy, cut in up to another 1 tbsp water.

Gather up the pieces and knead together only as much as it takes to get a smooth ball of dough.

Roll the dough into a cylinder with a length of 25cm and a diameter of 4cm.

Wrap in greaseproof paper or plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest and chill for 15 minutes.

Bonus tip! If your dough has warmed, it may tend towards flattening against the counter. To avoid this, you can use a couple of kitchen roll tubes and a little tape to hold the cylinder in shape.

While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 170C (150C fan / 340F).

Slice the dough into 1 cm cookies.

Place them on a lined baking tray.

Prick each one a few times with a fork.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until they've taken on just a very slight golden colour.

As soon as they’re out of the oven, sprinkle with the reserved sugar and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy the crisp, lemony crunch!

Once you've given my recipe a go, I'd love you to come back and leave a comment letting me know how yours turned out.

I'd love to see your videos and pics, too! Just tag me on social media. I'm @emilylearycooks on Twitter and TikTok or @amummytoo on Instagram.

Print this Easy Lemon Shortbread Biscuits recipe

More lemon recipes to try