These lemon curd cookies have a tender, buttery thumbprint cookie filled with tangy homemade lemon curd and then dusted with powdered sugar! They're super easy to make and have just the right balance of sweet and sour!
You might also like these lemon curd cupcakes or this lemon biscotti!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients to make these lemon curd cookies!
Almond Flour - I like substituting a portion of the all purpose flour with almond flour in all my cookies! It yields a more tender cookie with just that slight almond flavor. But you can leave it out if desired!
Lemon Juice & Zest - I highly recommend using fresh lemons for your lemon curd for the best flavor! But you can always substitute with a little bottled lemon juice if necessary.
Egg Yolks - Lemon curd is one of my favorite ways to use up leftover egg yolks from all my macarons!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Lemon Curd Cookies
First make the lemon curd! You can check out my full post on how to make lemon curd for extra tips and tricks! I also talk about how to make a double boiler and why you should never use metal when making lemon curd!
Create a double boiler by bringing 1-2 inches of water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Place a heatproof glass bowl on top and make sure it's not touching the water.
Add the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt into the top of your double boiler.
Whisk until completely combined and then continue to whisk as the lemon curd cooks (constant whisking prevents the lemon curd from curdling). Continue to whisk the lemon curd for 10-15 minutes or until it become thick and paler in color (it should be similar to the consistency of hollandaise sauce). If the lemon curd isn’t thickening, turn up the heat and constantly whisk.
Once thickened, remove the glass bowl from the heat. Cut the butter into chunks and whisk into the lemon curd until fully combined and smooth.
If desired, pass through fine mesh strainer and then pour into a glass jar. Let cool to room temperature and then cover and store in the fridge for up to a week.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated.
Fold in the flour, almond flour, and salt until just combined. The dough should come together into a ball and still be slightly sticky.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Scoop about 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. I use a size 20 cookie scoop.
Lightly flour the back of a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon and press into your dough balls to flatten them slightly and create a deep divot in the top.
Place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes (or the fridge for 40 minutes) before baking to allow the cookies to firm back up. This ensures the cookies won't spread during baking.
While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are set and just starting to brown. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack.
Lightly dust the cookies with powdered sugar (optional).
Then fill with about 2 teaspoons of homemade lemon curd and enjoy!!
Recipe Notes
I've tested these lemon curd cookies a few different ways to achieve different textures.
The method listed in this recipe has you bake the cookies first and then fill with the lemon curd afterwards. This yields the prettiest cookie with bright yellow lemon curd that is still super tangy.
However, the lemon curd isn't quite as thick and still very sticky. So the cookies don't stack very well and are harder to store or transport.
Dusting the cookies with powdered sugar BEFORE filling with lemon curd, makes for a prettier, cleaner cookie. However, the lemon curd doesn't stick to the powdered sugar well so the cookies are a little less stable if you're going to be transporting them.
So alternatively you can fill the cookies with curd and then lightly dust the edges with powdered sugar. Up to you!
The other method I tested was to bake the cookies with the lemon curd already in the middle. This led to a more mellow tasting lemon curd that was much paler in the color. However, baking the lemon curd with the cookies led to a thicker lemon curd with a skin forming on top which made the cookies much easier to store and transport. They also didn't look as pretty.
A third option that works well is baking the cookies for about 8 minutes, then removing them, adding in the lemon curd, and continuing to bake for another 2-ish minutes. This helps the lemon curd set while maintaining its bright yellow color. The only downside is you still don't get clean powdered sugar lines.
Every version taste great, so I recommending baking one of each and deciding which you like better!
Tips for Perfect Cookies
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, crumbly cookies that don't spread.
Make sure your oven is the proper temperature! Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is exactly 350°F. If the oven is too cold, the cookies will spread too much and if it's too hot they centers won't bake all the way through. For example, my oven is about 20 degrees off. So I have to set the oven to 370°F in order to get it to bake at 350°F.
Use a lightweight, light colored baking sheet for best results! Believe it or not, a lighter pan makes the cookies bake more slowly than a dark pan, which helps keep them from spreading too much. My favorite pans for baking cookies are:
You also want to use either parchment paper or silicone mats on your cookie sheet to help keep the cookies from spreading.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, on the center rack. This will ensure all your cookies cook evenly and the bottoms don't burn. Then let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches. This ensures the cookies cook evenly and don't spread too much by being put on a hot pan.
Always under-bake the cookies! If you slightly under-bake the cookies (so the centers are still soft when you remove them from the oven), they'll stay soft and chewy for days!
Do the cookie scoot! In order to get perfectly round cookies, use a large cookie cutter to gently scoot them around as soon as they come out of the oven!
Recipe FAQ's
Chilling the dough allows the flour to hydrate a bit and ensures the butter is super cold. This keeps your lemon cookies from spreading too much and completely flattening out.
You can store these cookies in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Yes, but I recommend making homemade lemon curd if possible.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Lemon Curd Cookies
Special Equipment
- double boiler
Ingredients
Lemon Curd
- 3 large egg yolks
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
Thumbprint Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar, plus a little extra for dusting
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup almond flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Lemon Curd
- You can check out my full post on how to make lemon curd for extra tips and tricks!
- Create a double boiler by bringing 1-2 inches of water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Place a heatproof glass bowl on top and make sure it's not touching the water.
- Add the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt into the top of your double boiler.
- Whisk until completely combined and then continue to whisk as the lemon curd cooks (constant whisking prevents the lemon curd from curdling). Continue to whisk the lemon curd for 10-15 minutes or until it become thick and paler in color (it should be similar to the consistency of hollandaise sauce). If the lemon curd isn’t thickening, turn up the heat and constantly whisk.
- Once thickened, remove the glass bowl from the heat. Cut the butter into chunks and whisk into the lemon curd until fully combined and smooth.
- If desired, pass through fine mesh strainer and then pour into a glass jar. Let cool to room temperature and then cover and store in the fridge for up to a week.
Thumbprint Cookies
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated.
- Fold in the flour, almond flour, and salt until just combined. The dough should come together and still be slightly sticky.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop about 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. I use a size 20 cookie scoop.
- Lightly flour the back of a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon and press into your dough balls to flatten them slightly and create a deep divot in the top.
- Place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes (or the fridge for 40 minutes) before baking to allow the cookies to firm back up. This ensures the cookies won't spread during baking.
- While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are set and just starting to brown. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack.
- Lightly dust the cookies with powdered sugar (optional).
- Then fill with about 2 teaspoons of homemade lemon curd and enjoy!!
- Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
J Rose says
Question, review to follow
Have you tested baking these cookies from frozen? I was going to make the dough (and a few test cookies) tonight, and bake them off Saturday morning, pls advise!
Kyleigh Sage says
Yes you can freeze the dough balls and bake from frozen! You may want to indent before freezing (flash freeze on a baking sheet after indenting then transfer to an airtight container). Then bake from frozen with an additional 2-3 minutes added on.
Terry C says
I haven’t made them yet but I will then I will come back to rate, but I have a feeling they will get a 5 star from me based on the other posts.
I was wondering if you roll the cookies then press in the tablespoon to make the divot and when you go back to powder them you could place the tablespoon again, lay it down gently, then sieve the powdered sugar over the cookies so the well doesn’t get the sugar in it and the curd will adhere to the cookie a bit better? Does that sound like it would work? I think it is a little extra work but for transporting and presentation would be a win win!
I think it is worth a try😉
Kyleigh Sage says
Great idea, I think that would work! If you try it, definitely let me know how it turns out!
Maliha says
I made this as part of a gift box for my friends and they all loved it! The instructions were clear and perfect! You were so right about the prettier version not being as easy to transport/package. But I went with that option anyway 😀
My only feedback would be to fix the metrics conversion of flour. 2 cups is what the recipe needed. The equivalent in grams (250gm) made for a very sticky dough that couldn't be rolled.
N says
These were great! The cookie base was perfect and I tried multiple lemon curds, both homemade and store bought and this was the best by far. Tangy and sweet.
Sara says
Made these for a bridal shower and they were a hit!
miche says
These look great but would be good if you could put things like butter in grams instead of cups. It just gives a more accurate result and it I cut the butter in large chunks its going to become 1/2 a cup quite quickly.
Kyleigh Sage says
If you go to the top of the ingredients section of the recipe card, there is an option to switch to metric measurements! 1/2 cup of butter is 1 standard stick (or 8 tablespoons) or about 113 grams.
Ashlyn Meredith says
These cookies are so good! My family could not stop eating them and they started to disappear quickly! Highly recommend making these guys!