This post may contain affiliate links.
This recipe for lemon thumbprint cookies is lemon through-and-through. On top of being filled with lemon curd, the buttery cookie base is also infused with both lemon zest and lemon juice for the ultimate lemon cookie made with lemon curd.
My goal with these cookies was to create something that was so buttery and tender, it almost melts in your mouth. Through many rounds of testing, I found a few steps are key to achieving that.
For starters, I found not coating the dough balls in granulated or confectioners’ sugar is the way to go. It might be pretty, but the added sweetness is unnecessary and the sugar make the exterior crunchy, which takes away from the buttery texture.
The second thing I found is a slightly higher bake temp makes for a more tender cookie. Most thumbprint cookies are baked at 350ºF, but when baked at a higher temp of 375ºF, the cookies set faster and cook faster, which means they spend less time in the oven.
Ingredients Needed
Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll need for these cookies. Jump down to the recipe card for the full recipe with ingredient amounts.
- Butter: I always use unsalted butter for baking so I can have more control over the amount of salt added. If you’re using salted butter, decrease the measured amount of salt to ¼ teaspoon.
- Sugar: you’ll need both granulated sugar and light brown sugar. This combination creates a tender, but not dry, cookie.
- Lemon: both the zest and the juice are used in the cookie dough.
- Egg yolk: an egg yolk offers many of the benefits of baking with a whole egg, but without any of the drawbacks. By using just the yolk, you add fat and structure to the dough without adding water (from the white) which can cause cookies to dry out.
- Vanilla extract: just a splash for a rounded flavor—lemon is the main attraction here.
- All-purpose flour: make sure you measure by weight using a kitchen food scale or fluff, spoon and level your flour if using cup measurements.
- Cornstarch: a key ingredient that lends tenderness to the cookies.
- Salt
- Lemon curd: frankly, I prefer to use a quality store-bought lemon curd because it’s so convenient. However, you can use homemade lemon curd.
Quick Step-By-Step Process
These cookies are so easy to make. Here’s the overview of how to make them. And for the full recipe, jump down to the recipe card.
- Beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest together until smooth and creamy.
- Add the egg yolk, lemon juice and vanilla and beat to combine.
- Add the flour and cornstarch and mix just until a dough comes together and no pockets of dry flour remain.
TIP: when making chewy cookies you want to work the dough a bit to form gluten (gluten=chew). But for cookies like this, where you want them to melt in your mouth, you want to be careful not to develop too much gluten. So don’t overwork the dough! Mix just until a dough comes together.
- Scoop dough, by tablespoon, and roll into balls.
- Using your thumb, carefully press an indent in the dough balls. Place the indented dough balls on a baking sheet and chill until firm, about 30 minute.
- Fill the indents with lemon curd.
- Bake the cookies just until set and starting to turn lightly golden around the edges, about 10 minutes.
Test Kitchen Tips
- Many recipes will have you chill the dough before rolling into balls. The problem with this is you then have to let the dough soften at room temperature before you can scoop it. That makes no sense to me! While the dough is still soft, scoop and roll it into balls. Form the indent in each dough ball, and then chill the dough.
- Rolling and indenting the dough prior to chilling will also help mitigate any cracking around the edges. Some cracking may happen, but it’s easier to fix when the dough is still somewhat warm/pliable.
- I find the easiest way to fill the dough balls with lemon curd is to spoon the lemon curd into a small zipper-lock bag, snip the corner of the bag, and pipe the lemon curd into the dough balls.
Variations
- I love the fresh lemon flavor of these, but if you want even more lemony goodness, add some lemon extract in addition to the vanilla extract. I would do ½ teaspoon of each.
- Additionally, you could drizzle a lemon glaze over top—just whisk a cup of confectioners’ sugar with 1–2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.
- For something less lemon-forward, feel free to swap the lemon curd for any kind of jam or curd. Blueberry, raspberry or strawberry jam would be delicious. As would orange curd, rhubarb curd or cranberry curd.
- You’ll need about ½ cup of lemon curd for these cookies, so if you end up making my homemade lemon curd recipe, you’ll have some leftover. Enjoy the leftovers with biscuits, scones, muffins, pancakes, waffles, yogurt and more.
More Cookie Recipes from Zestful Kitchen
Cookies
Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
Cookies
Linzer Cookie Recipe
Desserts
Chewy Cardamom Cookies
Baking Recipes
Chewy Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lemon Curd Cookies
Description
Video
Save This Recipe!
We’ll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- ⅓ cup (65g) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (72g) light brown sugar
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 1 large egg yolk
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2¼ cups (281g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon (10g) cornstarch
- ½ cup lemon curd, store bought or homemade
Instructions
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer), beat 1 cup butter until smooth; about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and add ⅓ cup granulated sugar, ⅓ cup light brown sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon zest; beat on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Scrape down sides of bowl and add 1 egg yolk, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; beat to combine.
- Add 2¼ cups flour and 1 tablespoon cornstarch and mix on low until no pockets of dry flour remain. Scrape down sides of bowl and give dough one more mix by hand to ensure no dry flour remains.
- Using a tablespoon measure, scoop and roll dough into balls (16g each) and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Use your thumb to gently press an indent in center of each dough ball, pressing about three-quarters of the way through; mend any cracked edges.
- Return to sheet pan and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days. (Indented dough balls can be frozen for up to 3 months.)
- Heat oven to 375ºF (190ºC) with rack set in middle position. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Arrange 8 indented dough balls on prepared sheet and fill each with about ½ teaspoon lemon curd.
- Bake until edges of cookies are set and just starting to turn golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on sheet 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
absolutely amazing
So glad you enjoyed these Millie!
My family loved these! They were so refreshing to have as part of our family Christmas cookie plate. I had gold sprinkles leftover from a different recipe and they were just a cute little addition! Everything else was followed to a T!
Oh what a great idea to add gold sprinkles! I’m so happy to hear you and your family enjoyed these!
If I wanted to omit the lemon juice and zest to make these simply vanilla, would you suggest I add anything to help replace the affect the lemon juice had on the recipe?
Hi Gabrielle, great question! I would just increase the vanilla extract to 2 teaspoons and leave everything else the same. This will mean the dough has about 1.5 tsp less liquid than the original recipe, which I don’t anticipate will have much of an impact. In the case that the dough is quite crumbly, I would try adding 1 teaspoon of water and that should bring it together. What do you plan to fill the vanilla cookies with? Let me know how it goes!