When I think of hot summer days, I think of a nice tall glass of cool lemonade. Well, the weather has turned very abruptly here, from highs in the 60s to 90-degree days in a matter of less than a week. Why not revisit lemonade in a delicious baked good?
These soft, simple shortbread cookies are easy to throw together, bake, and have ready to eat in under half an hour. They’re a sweet lemon, with a bit of tangy lemon in the icing, and they make for a great treat in the cool evening hours of a long summer day.
A few quirks about these cookies, before we get to the recipe.
- The dough has nothing in it that would rise as they bake, so the shape and thickness you make them when you roll out and cut the dough is the shape the cookies will be when they’re done.
- These cookies don’t brown. If anything, they darken very slightly, but if you wait for them to brown up they’ll be way over-done.
- I add lemon extract to the dough to have an extra-lemony cookie. If you want a sweeter shortbread (or can’t find lemon extract), it’s fine to leave it out.
These cookies are always a hit whenever I make them, and I hope they will be for you as well. Here’s how to whip up a batch in under 30 minutes:
Simple, Sweet Iced Lemon Cookies
A simple and easy to make shortbread cookie laced with lemon for a cookie that tastes like lemonade on a hot summer day.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutter
- Silicone Baking Mat
- Baking Sheets
- Cooling Racks
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 2½ Cups Flour
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter Softened.
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 Tsp Lemon Extract
For the Icing
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 1½ Tbsp Lemon Juice
- ½ Tbsp Milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In your mixer, beat together the butter, powdered sugar, and lemon juice. It'll look a little chunky; that's fine.
- Sift in the flour and keep mixing for 2-4 minutes. You're looking for a texture like sand, which will then incorporate into a dough.
- Take this dough ball and roll it out flat, to about 1cm thick. The cookies don't rise or spread out when baking, so pick the shape you want them to be.
- Use a cookie cutter to cut out your cookies. Take excess, re-ball and re-roll, and repeat until all dough has been cut. Arrange them on your baking sheet and baking mat.
- Bake for 6-7 minutes. They won't brown, so be careful. If you made your cookies a little thin, it won't take quite as long to bake.
- Pull the cookies out and let rest for a minute. Then, carefully transfer them to a cooling rack. While they cool, make your icing.
- To make the icing, mix the icing ingredients. Adjust the liquid and sugar to reach the consistency you want.
- Spread the icing over your cookies. I use a spoon, but you can pipe it too. Decorate with colored icing or even sprinkles, or just leave it plain. That's it!