Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

A melt in your mouth thumbprint cookie with tangy lemon curd center. Make the lemon curd in your microwave and they come together in a cinch!

I don’t know about you but when the school year kicks up I always need a little extra boost.  As a teacher I need like three extra cups of coffee, a long nap, and a plate of these lemon thumbprint cookies.  I seriously ate way too many of these cookies last week, but I’m attributing them to how “I survived the first week of school”.

Thank you Lemon Thumbprint cookies. I couldn’t have done it without you.

So let’s talk about these cookies shall we? Soft, buttery vanilla shortbread cookies get a lemon curd center and then a lemon glaze drizzled over the top. Pucker up ladies and gentlemen. These cookies pack a lemony punch.

Ingredients Needed

• Unsalted butter
• Sugar
• Egg Yolk
• Vanilla
• Flour
• Salt
• Lemon Curd

How to make these lemon thumbprint cookies

Step One: Make Your Cookie Dough

You want to start by creaming your butter and sugar together in your mixer. You want to cream for about 2 minutes on medium high until light and fluffy.

Then add your egg and vanilla together. Be sure to scrape down the bowl. Sometimes some unincorporated mixture gets stuck at the bottom of your mixing bowl.

Then stir in your dry ingredients until just combined. Be sure to not keep mixing once the flour has been incorporated.

Step Two: Shape Your Cookies

Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop you want to scoop the cookies into 1 inch balls. Roll each cookie into a ball using your hands and place on the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. 

With your thumb or the back of a ¼ teaspoon, dent each cookie in the center.

Then place a 1/4 teaspoon curd into each indent.

You want to fill these cookies before baking. The cookies will puff up and be very difficult to fill after. You can make the indent with your thumb, or (what I prefer) the back of a 1/4 teaspoon.

Now for the best part…put a dollop of lemon curd right in the center. You could simply by a jar, but why buy when you can make it yourself in the microwave with this microwave lemon curd.

Be still my heart. Lemon curd made in the microwave.

Recipe Tips

• Measure your flours correctly. Too much flour can result in a dense cookie. Don’t just scoop the flour directly into your measuring cup. This can result in a major over measurement! After you have spooned the flour in, then use a knife to level off the flour. Don’t tap the sides of the measuring cup, or pack your flour down. Both can also result in too much flour. You can read a full tutorial on how to measure flour here.
• Butter softened to room temperature. Does the temperature of the butter matter? It matter so much this quote was added to end of the recipe in the cookbook.”Butter is like the concrete you use to pour the foundation of a building. So it’s very important to get it right: the temperature, the texture, and aeration” So in other words…yea it matters. It matters so much I did an entire post on how butter temperature affects cookies.  The butter needs to be softened to room temperature, which mean you can slightly indent your thumb in the butter but shouldn’t easily smoosh all the way through. If you forget to take your butter out in time, cut the butter into small chunks and leave out at room temperature. It will soften much faster this way. When you cream the butter and sugars together it’s also important to let this happen for a whole 5 minutes to allow enough air into the batter and helps leavens the cookies. For 3 quick ways to soften your butter, you can read this post.
• Use a small cookie scoop for best results – A cookie scoop will give you all perfectly even sized cookies which means they will all bake evenly.
• Fill with curd before baking – Trying to fill them after can be tricky. So fill before you bake and keep it easy peasy.
• If your cookies spread too much.. – Try chilling the cookie dough. Any unused dough can be kept covered in the fridge. Or after they come out of the oven, take a spoon and press the edges back in toward the middle.
• Sticky dough? If while shaping the cookies, the dough is sticking to your hands, lightly dust your hands with flour. And when indenting the center of the cookies, lightly flour your thumb, or a teaspoon, and press down into the center.

Be Sure To Let Them Cool!

My last helpful tip for you:  try to be patient when they come out of the oven. Let. Them. Cool. Seriously. Hot lemon curd dribbling down your chin make not a fun evening.

So once they have cooled just try not to eat them all at once.

Pro Tip: Bake these on parchment. Then just slide the entire sheet of parchment, cookies and all, off onto your cooling rack.

Lemon Thumbprint Cookie FAQ’s

Cookie Troubleshooting

If your cookies come out too hard here are a few reasons why and how to fix them:

• Overbaked: This could be because you overbaked the cookies. So watch the time on these!
• Butter too warm. If the butter is too warm, then the cookies spread in the oven. It could cause them too spread too much resulting in a cookie that gets too thin and gets too crispy and hard. Read –> What Does Butter Do In Cookies?
• Too much flour. You measured your flour incorrectly resulting in a cakey, dry hard cookie. Read –> Which Flour Is Best For Cookies?
• Oven Temperature Too High. Your oven temperature may also be too high. I recommend using an oven thermometer to ensure your oven is running at the correct temperature.

 

More Recipes To Try

• Raspberry Almond Thumbprints
• Lemon Cookies Recipe
• Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
• Lemon Zucchini Bread
• Blueberry Lemon Scones

To Make These Lemon Thumbprint Cookies you will need:

• Quality Cookies Sheets Like These Ones That Won’t Warp or Burn Your Cookies
• Oven Thermometer
• Kitchen-Aid Mixer (you can make them by hand, but this stand mixer makes fast work of your dough!)
• Silicone baking mat
• cooling rack
• cookie spatula

Need More Cookie Help?

I get it. Cookies can be challenging. So I created this fun free email series – Bake Your Best Cookies Ever. It’s 5 days of awesome cookie tips, secrets, and recipes delivered right to your inbox. No gimmicks. Pinky swear. Just pure cookie fun.