Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

• 56 grams granulated sugar
• 1½ - 3 teaspoons lemon zest more is better
• 113 grams unsalted butter room temperature; I used Kerrygold brand
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt (I used fine sea salt)
• 10 grams egg yolk (about half of a large or extra-large egg yolk)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 170 grams unbleached all-purpose flour I used Gold Medal

Lemon glaze

• 60 grams powdered sugar sifted
• 2 - 3 teaspoons lemon juice

Instructions

1. Place the sugar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Zest the lemons directly onto the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar, until the sugar has a sandy texture. This can be done beforehand.
2. Add the butter and salt to the lemon-sugar mixture. Mix on medium speed with the paddle attachment until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
3. Stop the mixer, scrape down the bowl, add the egg yolk and lemon juice and mix on medium speed just until the ingredients are incorporated.
4. Add all the flour and mix it on low speed just until all the flour is mixed in. The dough will be crumbly at this point. Increase the mixer speed to medium and mix until the dough has come together and forms large clumps.
5. Roll the dough into a log on parchment paper and use a plastic bowl scraper to form it into a smooth log about 1¾ inches in diameter and 7¾ - 8 inches long. Wrap in the parchment, store in a cardboard tube, and refrigerate for at least a few hours.
6. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a half baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the cookies on the baking sheet 1-1/2 inches apart.
7. Bake the cookies for about 18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, then glaze if desired.

Notes

28 December 2025: I made these today for the first time, halving the original recipe (halved amounts are shown above - double them for the full recipe). Rather than rolling out the dough and making cutout cookies, I made a log and used the slice and bake method. The log was about 1¾ inches in diameter and 7¾ - 8 inches long. I refrigerated it for about 4 hours (it works well to make the dough in the morning and bake the cookies in the early afternoon). I got 24 ¼-inch cookies out of the log. I baked them 8 at a time on a quarter sheet pan, lined with a single sheet of parchment, on rack 2 for 18 minutes. I removed them from the pan to the cooling rack almost immediately so the bottoms didn’t brown much. I made sure to keep the cookies chilled before baking by putting each pan in the fridge while the previous one was baking, and taking it out about 5 minutes before the previous one was ready just so they didn’t get too cold. Once the baked cookies were cool, I spread a thin layer of the glaze on each one and let it harden.