These lemon shortbread cookies are a fan favorite, and once you try them, you'll see why! They're tender, buttery, and filled with bright lemon flavor.
When life hands you lemons, make lemon shortbread cookies! When we first planted our lemon tree, I had this romantic idea that I’d be able to pick fresh lemons all year round. Obviously, I’m not good with plants, or I would have known that the famous saying is literally true. You get lemons once a year, and you get a lot of them. Needless to say, life has been lemony lately in many ways, but today it’s all about these lovely lemon shortbread cookies.
Lemon Shortbread Cookies Ingredients
When I was testing this recipe, I made a ton of lemon shortbread cookies. I tried vegan and gluten-free shortbread cookies recipes with different oils and flours, all sorts of things. During the process, I was stressing out. Some cookies were dry, some were burned, and some flattened out like pancakes (not the good kind). I’m just lucky that Jack, being the kind taste tester that he is, made sure not a crumb went to waste.
So what did I end up with? A straightforward, delightful lemon butter cookie recipe. Here’s what’s in it:
- All-purpose flour – Sometimes complicated problems demand simple solutions. I tried all sorts of flours in this recipe, but good old AP yielded the best results every time.
- Butter – It gives these lemon shortbread cookies a delicious buttery flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Sugar – For sweetness.
- Lemon juice and zest – You couldn’t make lemon shortbread cookies without them! They fill these treats with bright lemon flavor.
- Fresh thyme – My twist. 🙂 I adore the combination of lemon and thyme in these cookies. It’s so surprising and refreshing; I think you’re going to love it too!
- And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Lemon Shortbread Cookies
The recipe is pretty simple and straightforward. Here’s how it goes:
First, make the dough. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, followed by the lemon juice, zest, and thyme. Mix again. Then, add the flour and salt and mix until just combined.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten it into a 1″ disk. If it’s sticky, wrap it up and chill it for 15 to 30 minutes, or until it’s firm, but still pliable.
Next, roll out the dough and cut out the cookies. My favorite part! Aim for the dough to be about 1/4″ thick. Then, use cookie cutters to cut out any shapes you like. Like in my sugar cookie recipe, I recommend starting at the edges of the dough and working inwards, puzzling together the cutters to cut out as many cookies as you can. Transfer the cut-outs to parchment-lined baking sheets, and re-roll the scraps to make more cookies.
Then, bake! Transfer the cookies to a 350° preheated oven, and bake until the edges are starting to turn light brown. Transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Finally, share them with someone you love!
Lemon Shortbread Cookies Tips
- Use softened – not melted – butter. The first step of this recipe, creaming the butter, is what gives these cookies their perfect light texture. In order to cream the butter, it needs to be soft, but not melted. To soften your butter, you’re going to need to plan ahead. Remove it from the fridge, set it on the counter, and let it sit for a couple of hours while it comes to room temperature. We’ve all tried to speed up this process in the microwave, but take it from me: letting your butter soften at room temperature will always yield the best results.
- Bake one sheet at a time. Temperatures vary throughout an oven, so baking one sheet at a time is the best way to ensure that your cookies cook evenly. You don’t want ones on the bottom rack to burn before the top rack starts to brown! Pop any cut-outs that don’t make it onto the first sheet in the fridge until you’re ready to bake them.
- Pair them with a cup of coffee or tea. Who doesn’t love a hot beverage and a sweet treat on a cold day? The thyme and lemon flavor makes these cookies especially delicious with tea, but they pair nicely with coffee and hot chocolate too. Enjoy!
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
If you love these lemon thyme shortbread cookies, try one of these cookies next:
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
- Perfect Oatmeal Cookies
- Best Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Tahini Cookies
- No Bake Cookies
- Orange Zest Shortbread Cookies
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ⅓ cup cane sugar
- Zest of 1 medium lemon
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Next, add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and thyme and mix again. Finally, add the flour and salt and mix until just combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten into a 1” disk. If the dough is sticky, wrap and chill for 15 to 30 minutes until firm but still pliable.
- Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until about ¼“ thick. If desired, you can roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Use 2” cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes. Transfer to the baking sheet and bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Keep any extra cut-out cookies in the fridge until ready to bake.
- Remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. Store at room temperature for up to 5 days.
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Yum. I actually used my lemon thyme for these. I LOVE ANYTHING LEMON. These were great with a cup of tea.
I love using lemon thyme in them as well :). I’m so glad you enjoyed these!
I have made these cookies several times, So Delicious
Today I used Freeze Dried Strawberries with a little lemon
They came out Delicious
ooh, that sounds super delicious, thanks for the idea!
Have you tried using dried herbs instead of fresh? I have so much dried stuff and would rather use that than have to buy fresh.
Just saw the comment above. Will try with that and see how it goes. 🙂
WAS DELICIOUS!!!! omg dried works great!!! will 100% make this again! 😀
I was fresh out of thyme, but made these using lavender instead (and with coconut sugar and an additional 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice). Shortbread is usually not my cookie of choice, but I love lemon, and these cookies did not disappoint! Looking forward to exploring more recipes from here!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! I think lemon and lavender are such a wonderful pairing 🙂
A beautifully light, buttery and fragrant shortbread. I absolutely love this recipe!
Shortbreads are my favorite cookies and I’m always on the look out for new ways to make them, these sound so delicious, will bake a batch this weekend!
Hello, Is there anything that can be used in place of the butter to make this recipe vegan? Allergy to dairy..unfortunately. Thank you, Kathy
Hi Kathy, I couldn’t get this recipe to work without butter (both vegan butter and coconut butter made them spread too much, not holding their cutout shape). I have lots of other delicious vegan cookies in the vegan desserts section, I hope you find something you love here: https://www.loveandlemons.com/recipes/vegan-recipes/dessert-recipes/
Thank you – I now make these annually for a cookie swap – I cut them in triangles and claim that they are “trees.” I’ve done thyme and rosemary and love them. What is your experience with baking in advance and freezing them? Thank you again! Michelle
10/10, delicious!
This is such an easy recipe – I had a cooking vibe going on this morning and I am so glad I found this. The cookies are flaky, buttery, and perfectly lemony. The thyme adds an amazing kick. They taste great with tea & milk as they’re crunchy on the edges, soft in the middle, and so flaky throughout.
Our thyme plant is going crazy so it was a great chance to use the trimmings in something sweeter, and lemons are abundant around us right now! Definitely a recipe to keep somewhere easy to reach.
Hi Jill, I’m so glad you loved the cookies! And I’m so jealous that you have so much thyme growing, I can’t wait for spring 🙂
These were delicious 🙂 I didn’t have cane sugar so had to settle with caster sugar. Needed to cook mine for round 13 minutes. Lovely lemon taste. Thank you!
Just made this, slathered on some plum jam…it may have been the best bite I’ve ever had. Now I have to wait till desert tomorrow to have more.
Delish! Easy to make. I used a tea spoon of dried thyme instead of fresh and it worked out just right!
so glad you loved them! thanks for the tip about the dried thyme!
I just made them and they’re fabulous! Very easy, not too sweet, just lemon-y enough. I ended up baking them about 16 minutes and they crisped up nicely. Great with a cup of coffee. Thanks!
Hi Julia – I’m so glad you liked the cookies!
Can you freeze the dough? Or how long do you think it could last in the fridge before baking? I wanted to make these ahead of time. Thank you!
Hi Samantha, the dough was really difficult to work with if refrigerated for more than an hour or so. These are best made and baked on the same day.
Thank you! I found other recipes for shortbread cookies that say you can freeze them after baking…. will try with small batch. Can’t wait to try your recipe!
Good evening…I just made these cookies from.your recipe. They turned out incredibly lovely. Thank you so much for being generous in sharing this absolutely Devine shortbread cookie recipe.
Hi Wendy, thank you so much for coming back to let me know! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
These are great! Very lemony with a lovely bit of thyme. I think rosemary would also work well in these.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Yes, I think rosemary would be lovely 🙂
These are excellent! I added lime instead of lemon and added a bit of coconut. Great consistency!
I made these yesterday with fresh thyme from my garden. They were very good, but we couldn’t taste the thyme (which is the reason I tried these cookies). I may try them one more time and reduce the lemon zest and increase the thyme. Also, I am lazy, so instead of rolling the shortbread out and using a cutter, I rolled it into a log, stuck it in the frig and just sliced off as many cookies as I wanted to bake.
Excellent cookies and simple to make. I made them cat shaped as a thank you for our vet who has gone above and beyond in the care of our 20 year old diabetic tuxedo cat. Thanks for a great recipe! 5 stars (can’t get the star thingy to work)
aww, those sound so cute – wishing your cat all the best! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
This can work for beginners (of baking), thanks for sharing some simple recipes like this one.