Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Sorry to say my notes on this recipe is - "a mess and a total waste of ingredients." It's extremely rare that I get bad results from recipes on this site - but this one was memorably BAD.

YUCK. I followed the directions exactly, with extremely poor results. Yield was way off -- I only got 12 small cookies instead of 20 2-inch ones. Baking time was off too, and they probably should have baked at 325 instead of 375...I checked them after 14 min. and the bottoms were burnt (recipe recommended 20 to 25 min.) After scraping off the burnt bottoms, the texture and taste were still nasty -- way too floury and bready.

These cookies turned out lovely! I doubled the recipe and used shaped cookie cutters to cut them out. I also made lemon icing for them with water, lemon juice, and powdered sugar. Yum! For me, the baking time was less than what the recipe suggested... about 15 minutes.

USED HEALTHIER OPTIONS: This recipe still turned out amazing! I used lemon juice instead of lemon extract, lite brown sugar, and whole wheat flour for a healthier cookie and they still recieved rave reviews from the toughest critics: my 8 and 6 yr old!

These are absolutely delicious and easy to make. I put part of the dough into a decorating bag, and using a large cake decorator tip, made lemon shortbread straws and decorative small cookies also. From my families response, I will be making these often.

I loved these! Super refreshing and light. I used fresh lemon juice instead of extract and thought it gave it a nice tart flavor. I cut mine into fingers instead of using cutters. I did find the dough pretty sticky, but flour cured it right up.

These are delicious! I did use real lemon juice vs. extract. They are buttery, rich and with the lemon juice & zest really have a extra special fresh taste to them! I just finished a batch to send to a friend for his birthday, but have decided I need to make some for home! Enjoy!!

These cookies were great after a few minor tweaks... I added just a touch more vanilla and then shook the cookies in a bag with about 1/4 cup powdered sugar to coat them. The powdered sugar coating was the perfect touch!

These were really good. I reduced butter by half cup, worried about other reviewers' comments of too greasy, and also reduced flour by half cup. Used juice and zest from two good-sized lemons in place of extract. Also doubled to 40 serving size because wanted to be sure to have enough cookies. Don't like the rolling out...takes too much time, so I used a cookie press and made little flower cookies. Got about 60 cookies. Baked at 325 for 10 minutes. Perfect! Thank you...and btw, mine were a bit tart, but I love them like that.

I made this recipe and it so good I can hardly wait to do it again! I loved this recipe and so did my family too! Easy making them too!

I make this recipe at work(a bakery) all the time, its a favorite and hard to keep on stock. The only thing that I do differently is use a drizzle iceing to make them look pretty.Also I use Lemon oil instead of extract and only 1/2 the amount because its cheaper to make in large quanity. But overall its a great recipe.

This would go good with tea. It had a nice texture & good lemony taste that comes on half way through. I pulled mine out of the oven right when they started to smell, after about 13 minutes; before they got brown. Overall a very nice cookie.

I used a cookie press which worked well and these were very lemony, but still seemed bland as a cookie. Maybe with tea they would be nice, but all the butter made it seem like too much. I probably won't make these again.

The dough was much too soft to work with--it needed to be refrigerated before I rolled it out. I used my 2" cutter and only got about 16 cookies; perhaps I made them a little thicker than called for. They have an odd texture and are kind of bitter. Less lemon zest and more vanilla may have helped them out. I'm not sure I'll make them again but if I do I'll have to sweeten them up somehow.

I loved these buttery little, melt in your mouth lemon cookies. The recipe must make 20 teeny tiny cookies..you will want to double of triple this recipe. The smaller your cookies the shorter your cooking time. I would definitely make these again.

These didn't turn out as I had expected - pretty disappointing, actually. The first problem is that the recipe's serving size is way off, as a few other reviewers have mentioned. I got twelve two inch cookies. I think this recipe would be good as a starting point, but it's definitely not quite right. There is far too much butter compared to other ingredients and not enough flavoring elements; the cookies ended up tasting like butter with a touch of lemon. If I were to do this over again, I would probably add lemon juice and maybe more lemon zest, maybe even a little more salt to bring out the sweetness. In addition, when I mixed the flour in, I was left with a pile of crumbs rather than dough, and I had to work the crumbs by hand for several minutes until it was even able to be rolled out. I wonder if the cookies would benefit from the addition of extra liquid, again that could be where some lemon juice might improve the recipe.

I followed the directions exactly. I put the cookies in for 15 minutes, and when I went in to check then halfway during that time the cookies had "oozed" into each other! I thought that maybe when the cooled they would be okay, like, thin and crispy or something. No, they were too greasy, they fell apart into tiny buttery crumbles. Don't know what went wrong. I should have listened to Nydiva's review...

Made this a few times already. Last Christmas I made these and gave away to friends at a party. My friend also made other kinds of very fancy Christmas cookies, but mine were gone before hers!

I might make these again but I would try using fresh lemon zest, I used dried and I think that was a bad idea. Also they where much better after sifting powdered suger on top than they wher plain. This recipe only made a few maybe 8-10 if you make them 1/4 in. Thick. They are perfect with tea or coffee. B

I didn't have any lemons for the zest so I skipped out on it. But they tasted FANTASTIC! This recipe is a new favorite! Yum!!

Love the flavor of these, lemony & not too sweet. They were the first cookies my adult daug had ever made from scratch & they were so easy that she was encouraged to try more baking in the future. However, there were some problems with the recipe that experience helped me to help her not to ruin the cookies. First, baking time is seriously off. She baked them exactly 9 mins & they were perfect. A double recipe rolled a little less than 1/4" thick yielded 29 2" cookies. Also, let them cool a little more than 2 mins before moving if you want perfect, unbroken cookies.

I made these recently. I substituted crushed Lemon head candy for the zest. The result was a light delicate cookie. The lemon flavor was mostly subtle but there were pockets of more intense lemon flavor through out. I agree with some of the reviews concerning portion size. I didn't have any of the problems others say they had with the dough. My dough was very soft that made it somewhat difficult to move after they were rolled out. This can easily be fixed with refrigeration. I will definitely make these again though I will play around some more with the lemon content.

Did not turn out well at all!

I made a few changes: I substituted a 1/4 cup ground flax seeds for a 1/4 cup of flour. And I used whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose. I also didn't roll and cut them. I just used a spoon and made 1 inch balls of dough that melted into little round cookies. yum.

These turned out pretty good! I just wanted something for the household to nibble on and didn't actually have all the ingredients. I didn't have lemon zest, so I used lemon juice and probably could've gone heavier on it. I also used butter flavored crisco instead of butter. I didn't have brown sugar either so I just added a little more sugar. I used a fork dipped in sugar and did a criss cross pattern on the top. I used a toaster oven with a baking function and they were done in 15 minutes. The batch only made 12 but everyone liked them. They had crispy edges and a chewy center. Will make again!

This recipe was ok nothing great! My dough was very floury so I added a little honey. Baking time only took about 10 minutes too not 25 like the recipe says. I also sprinkled powdered sugar on top like suggested in the other reviews.

The first tray was burned to a crisp at 15 minutes, the second I pulled out at 12 minutes still over done but edible. No one liked them. Second time around I cooked them with more lemon zest and sprinkled demera sugar on top. Still not a fan. I am a regular baker and usually have very good results, especially with recipes from this website.

i thought that this was an ok recipe. it was hard to zest 2t of lemon, considering i don't have a real zester, but a kind of grater. next, the time to bake is NOT 20-25 minutes. for me it was about 12 minutes. the recipe only makes about 20 cookies too. lastly, to make them a little more lemon-ee, i added a lemon frosting. i mixed powedered sugar, water, some of the lemon extract, and lemon juice, and spread it over the cooled shortbread cookie. the cookie tasted fine, but iw as expecting something a little different...that's why it only got three stars. with all the personal adjustments, then i would give it 5 stars. =)

I did not care for this recipe.

I loved these cookies! They combined my two favorite kind of cookie. Who could ask for anything more? :)

I was craving a light crunchy lemony cookie to serve to guests who were just stopping for tea as they passed through town. I timed it so they were fresh from the oven when they arrived. Unfortunately, they were dry and chalky tasting with hardly any lemon taste. I even put in extra zest! Thumbs down.

Excellent! Substituted extract for fresh squeezed lemon juice (3/4 tsp). Rolled thinner. Bake 15 minutes. Added lemon glaze: 1/2 cup confectioners sugar 2tsp lemon juice). Really good!

it's a good (shortbread) cookie recipe. a few changes I added more lemon juice . they cook fast so they need to be watched when the edges are lightly golden they are done. I did double the recipe

I added about 2 teaspoons of poppyseeds with the dry ingredients. These came out so yummy!

I don’t know what those other women were talking about. These cookies turned out AMAZING. Great recipe, cook temp at 325 was listed in recipe and for Once my shortbread Didn’t Burn. Perfect, quick, delicious!

I used lemon juice for these, patted the dough into a round cake pan and cut into wedges. They do need to be watched closely, there is a fine line between under and over done. Taste is good but I will probably add a bit more sweetener next time.

Definitely used lemon juice and wheat pastry flour. I rolled it into a log and rolled the log in finely chopped pecans before refrigerating. Since my slices were a bit over quarter size I reduced the bake time to about 18 minutes where the cookies were lightly browned. Very nice

Good but 20 min is overkill. We did the second batch at 15 and should have pulled it even sooner.

Turned out great! Didn't have lemon extract so i used lime juice but still tasted good. Kids loved them too.

I loved this recipe!!! I never made it before but when baking, I decided to add lemon curd to the tops of my cookies. I think that if you like lemon curd I would highly recommend doing this. It made the cookies more lemony especially because I decided not to add as much zest as the recipe suggested. I only got a few cookies out of this recipe which I was kind of disappointed about because they were so good but for future reference I’ll just end up doubling or tripling the recipe so no problems there I also highly recommend refrigerating the cookie dough before attempting to roll into balls and bake it. Normally this step isn’t necessarily vital to the cookies you’re baking but when I assembled the dough it was particularly flaky. Because of this, I rolled the dough into one large ball covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for half an hour and when I took it out it was perfect and not flaky at all. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find out the cookies were still moist two or three days after I made them which is amazing!

Delicious, light and delicate cookie. I bet the reviewers that say it's a mess didn't cut in the butter enough - it needs to get past the flour-y stage to the completely creamed stage. I rolled 1 tsp of dough, and flattened them for each cookie - and baked for only 6 minutes. Lemon zest is a definite must for lemon flavor - but I might try other flavors with this cookie, I love it so much!

Its so good.My family loved it.Thx

This is the perfect brown sugar short bread cookie. I make a lot of this style of cookie and this recipe is exact. Loved the lemony flavor and using fresh grated rind is a must! Next time I might add some poppy seeds. I do the log method for these and do not roll them out.

I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect! Buttery, crispy, lemony shortbread.