My lemon curd cookie recipe is quick, easy, and gives the most beautiful vibrant lemon thumbprint cookies. A soft and buttery lemon dough is filled with a silky lemon curd for the perfect lemon cookie.

Hi hi! I am just popping in to share my recipe for lemon curd cookies! I posted my lemon curd recipe on my website recently and had a ton of extra in my fridge, so figured I might as well get this recipe up for you!

If you're familiar with my raspberry thumbprint cookie recipe these are super similar except made with lemon - a quick and easy cookie that looks really fancy but is a relatively low lift recipe. I tweaked the butter just a tiny bit to help them spread a little more, and to give a nice crater to fill right up with silky lemon curd.

This lemon curd cookie recipe also uses the same dough as my snowball cookies, so if you wanted to double up, you could definitely do so and make two trays of cookies!

Homemade vs Store bought lemon curd

During the recipe testing process I made these lemon curd cookies using both store bought and home made lemon curd. While making your own is extra delicious in my opinion (the flavour is just so much better!) you can absolutely use store bought too if it is what you have on hand.

I used about 160g of my homemade lemon curd if you need an idea of how much to have on hand.

Making the perfect indentation for thumbprint cookies

I know they are called thumbprint cookies, but I cheat and use a teaspoon measure to make the indentations on my cookies. I like to ball up the dough, roll in sugar, and then press them down a little to form a puck shape. I then use a teaspoon measure that has a round 'bowl' and dip it in sugar to help it not stick. I made the indentation on these lemon curd cookies quite deep so that I could fit as much curd in them as possible.

Just use whatever you have on hand - the end of a rolling pin or something similar might also work well to give you a nice round indentation.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Lemon Curd Cookies (Lemon Thumbprint Cookies)

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Author: Erin Clarkson
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 24 servings 1x
Category: Cookies
Method: Baking
Cuisine: American

Print Recipe

Description

Ingredients

Scale

Lemon Curd

One batch of homemade lemon curd, or store bought curd (I used about 170g). Make this ahead of time so it has time to cool.

Lemon Cookie Dough

70g powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy
6g freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)
190g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
190g all-purpose flour
20g custard powder or corn starch
¼ tsp salt (use a little less if you are using table salt rather than kosher salt)
Granulated sugar for rolling

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325°f / 165°c. Line 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper (I can fit 24 cookies all on one half sheet pan which is 18"x13" /45cm x33cm ).
Place the powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Add the lemon zest and use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar.
Add the butter and vanilla and mix with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy, stopping to scrape the edges of the bowl to ensure it is all well mixed. This step can also be done in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Add the flour, custard powder or corn starch and salt, and mix until combined with the mixer. The dough will be quite soft.
Using a 1 tablespoon scoop, scoop balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. The dough balls will weigh about 18g each.
Place the granulated sugar in a bowl. Roll each piece of dough into a ball, then roll in the granulated sugar until evenly coated. Place onto the sheet pan, and press down lightly to make it into a hockey puck shape. They do spread a little in the oven so make sure that you leave room for this.
Using a round teaspoon sized measuring spoon or something with a rounded bottom of a similar size, make indentations in the cookies. If the spoon is sticking, dip it into the sugar first. You can also use your finger if you like but I prefer the uniform shape of something round.
Fill each cavity you have just created with lemon curd- I do this using a piping bag and mound up a little so that there is lots in each cookie (see image in the blog post).
Bake the cookies for 13-14 minutes, until they are set around the edges.
Remove the cookies from the oven and leave to cool completely on the pan - place the pan on a wire rack to ensure that it has enough airflow underneath.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Notes

I don't think these cookies need anything to finish them off but if you wanted to you could give them a drizzle of lemon glaze.