These lemon thumbprint cookies are a lemon lovers’ dream cookie! Enjoy sweet, soft lemon sugar cookies filled with lemon curd and drizzled with lemon icing. I like to make the lemon curd from scratch because the flavor is superior (honestly, it’s just so good!), but feel free to use store-bought. Instead of lemon curd, you can substitute raspberry, strawberry, or apricot preserves/jam.
One reader, Stacey, commented: “My family and I love everything lemon, so when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. This recipe is absolutely delicious—a true treat of sweet and sour! This recipe will be making its way into my cookie rotation for many years to come! ★★★★★“
A sunny burst of citrus is just the thing to brighten up a gray winter day and add a pop of unexpected flavor to a holiday cookie tray. Among the deep dark flavors of chocolate and spice, like gingerbread cookies, Andes mint chocolate cookies, or chocolate ginger sparkle cookies, these lemon thumbprints shine like twinkly lights in the night. 😉
Loads of Lemon
These lemon thumbprints are flavored with real lemon all the way through, from the cookie dough to the lemon curd filling to the icing on top. Fresh lemon juice and zest are key to all that flavor.
There are 3 parts to these lemon thumbprint cookies:
- Buttery, vanilla bean-speckled lemon sugar cookie dough
- Creamy, tangy lemon curd (homemade or store-bought)
- 2-ingredient lemon icing
Make the Homemade Lemon Curd First
Have you made lemon curd before? It’s delicious on so many dessert recipes, like atop this lemon cheesecake or pavlova. You can use store-bought lemon curd in these cookies in a pinch, but I encourage you to try making it from scratch—it’s surprisingly easy, takes just 10 minutes on the stove, and tastes so much better!
I have a complete separate page dedicated to homemade lemon curd, with a video tutorial to help. It’s just 5 ingredients: egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and butter.
- Tip: I recommend making it ahead of time, so it has plenty of time to cool completely. It keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 10 days, so you can make it well in advance of making these lemon thumbprint cookies.
You could also play around with flavors and try filling the lemon thumbprints with fruit jam, like I use in these peanut butter & jam thumbprint cookies.
Here’s What You Need for These Lemon Thumbprint Cookies:
As a point of reference, I based this cookie dough off my recipe for butter cookies. Like a shortbread cookie, there’s no leavening agent, but—unlike shortbread—there is an egg, which makes the thumbprints less crumbly. Grab these ingredients:
- Butter: Creamed butter makes up the base of these cookies.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens the tart lemon in the dough, and we’ll roll the dough into sugar for a little extra sparkle.
- Lemon Zest + Juice: Remember to zest the lemon before slicing it and juicing it—it’s a lot harder the other way around!
- Egg: One egg provides softness and richness.
- Vanilla Bean Paste: You could use pure vanilla extract instead, but I really love the extra flavor the vanilla bean in the paste gives these lemon thumbprints.
- Flour: All-purpose flour gives the dough structure.
- Cornstarch: A little cornstarch makes for extra-soft cookies; it’s an ingredient in these soft chocolate chip cookies and lemon blueberry cookies, too.
- Salt: A little salt balances the sweet and amplifies the lemon and vanilla flavors.
Make the Lemon Cookie Dough & Chill
The dough comes together quickly with an electric mixer, which is required for creaming the butter and sugar together.
This creamy dough needs to chill for at least 3 hours before it’s ready to be rolled and shaped.
How to Shape & Fill Lemon Thumbprints
Once the dough has chilled, you can shape the cookies. Scoop the dough with a Tablespoon and then roll the dough into balls. Roll the cookie dough balls in granulated sugar before placing on a baking sheet.
Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie dough ball, then spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon curd into each. Bake the cookies for about 12–13 minutes.
Optional Lemon Icing Is the Icing on the… Cookies
While it’s entirely optional, I love these cookies with a drizzle of icing on top. It’s just that little something extra that makes them look like you bought them from a fancy bakery. Plus, it tastes fantastic!
You need just 2 ingredients: confectioners’ sugar and fresh lemon juice. Whisk it together until smooth, and drizzle it on the cooled cookies. I used a squeeze bottle to apply this sweet finishing touch, but you can simply use a spoon or fork.
The icing sets in about 30 minutes or so, and then you can stack and store the cookies.
You need about 1/2 cup (140g) of lemon curd. If using homemade, I recommend making the whole recipe for homemade lemon curd. You can freeze the leftover lemon curd for up to 3-6 months, or enjoy on yogurt, toast, waffles/pancakes, biscuits, and scones.
Yes, you can absolutely skip the lemon curd. Instead, try raspberry, apricot, or strawberry preserves/jam. Keep in mind that the lemon flavor won’t be as strong without the lemon curd, so I recommend keeping the lemon icing on top. (For that pop of lemon flavor!)
If you want even more lemon flavor in your cookies, feel free to add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract to the cookie dough when you add the vanilla bean paste.
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.
Lemon Thumbprints
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 40 minutes (includes chilling)
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 36-40 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Sweet, soft lemon thumbprints are filled with lemon curd and drizzled with lemon icing. Instead of homemade lemon curd, you can use store-bought; or substitute raspberry, strawberry, or apricot preserves/jam. This is a very soft and creamy butter cookie dough, so refrigerating it before shaping is imperative. A quick chill after shaping as the oven preheats is helpful, too.
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 Tablespoon (8g) cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 14 Tablespoons (200g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (see Note)
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
Coating & Filling
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (140g) homemade lemon curd or store-bought
Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Make the dough: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and salt until combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, egg, and vanilla bean paste and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. The wet ingredients will look curdled, but will smooth out when you add the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Dough will be very creamy. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, and up to 3 days. Chilling is imperative for this soft dough.
- Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Make room in the refrigerator for baking sheets, so the shape cookies can chill as the oven preheats in step 7.
- Shape & coat the dough: Place granulated sugar in a small bowl. Scoop cold dough (about 1 Tablespoon (18g) of dough each) and roll into balls. Roll each dough ball in granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets.
- Fill the cookies: Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie dough ball. Fill each with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon curd.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Place baking sheets with unbaked cookies in the refrigerator while the oven preheats. (Or transfer all cookies to 1 baking sheet, or a few plates, if your refrigerator doesn’t have room. I recommend chilling the shaped cookies for a few minutes, to prevent over-spreading.)
- Once oven preheats, bake shaped cookies for 12–13 minutes, or until edges appear set and are very lightly beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the icing: In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle over cooled cookies. (You can use a spoon or fork for this, or a squeeze bottle.) Icing will set at room temperature after about 30 minutes, and then you can stack, store, transport, and gift the cookies.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Unbaked shaped cookie dough balls (that are not coated in sugar and filled with curd) freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw for 30 minutes, and then coat in sugar, carefully indent and fill, and then bake. See this post on how to freeze cookie dough for more information and a video tutorial. Baked and cooled cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Vanilla Bean Paste | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets | Cooling Rack | Squeeze Bottle (optional for drizzling icing)
- Butter: The dough recipe calls for 14 Tablespoons (200g) of butter, so not quite 1 full cup. In testing, the cookies overspread when using a full cup (2 sticks/226g) of butter.
- Vanilla: I love using vanilla bean paste in these cookies because it combines both extract AND vanilla bean seeds, and adds extra flavor. You can, of course, use pure vanilla extract instead. If you want that extra vanilla bean flavor, feel free to add the seeds scraped from 1/2 of a vanilla bean. (This is in addition to the liquid vanilla extract.)
- Lemon Curd: You need about 1/2 cup (140g) of lemon curd. I recommend making the whole recipe for homemade lemon curd. You can freeze the leftover lemon curd for up to 3-6 months, or enjoy on yogurt, toast, waffles/pancakes, biscuits, and scones.
- Instead of Lemon Curd: Instead or lemon curd, try raspberry, apricot, or strawberry preserves/jam. Keep in mind that the lemon flavor won’t be as strong without the lemon curd, so I recommend keeping the lemon icing on top. (For that pop of lemon flavor!)
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can I use almond flour insead of AP?
Hi Lilly, we haven’t tested this recipe with almond flour, and unfortunately it’s not always as simple as a 1:1 swap since it has very different baking properties than all-purpose flour. You may have better luck with a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour instead. Let us know if you do try it!
I have made this recipe twice and this second time I used raw sugar to roll the dough in. The crunch this gave these cookies was delightful. With the pretty lemon curd I skipped the icing drizzle and still had pretty cookies. (The microwave lemon curd at Allrecipes is a winner too!)
Great taste! They spread a bit so I put the next tray in the freezer for 10 min and they held up better
I made these for morning tea for my church. Several people said they were “beautiful”. I omitted the icing as it is gilding the curd lily.
I’m excited to try this recipe! If I use your homemade lemon curd recipe, could I add the curd to the cookies after baking or does the curd need to be baked with the cookies?
Hi Shirley, be sure to add the lemon curd to the cookies before baking. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
I just made these and thought they were wonderful!
Use a wine cork or something similar to make small deep wells and don’t overfill them! I used 1/4 tsp to fill them and only filled about 3/4 of the way full. The filled wells will look tiny but I promise they will spread out to normal thumbprint size when baking. After filling don’t forget to chill again! I think longer than 10 minutes, I did an hour. Also, be sure you’re using parchment paper to cover the baking sheets, not tin foil. I had a small sheet with 3 leftover cookies on it and got lazy and used tin foil and they spread out a lot compared to the ones on my baking sheet wrapped in parchment paper!
On the icing, I used 1.5 cups of confectioners sugar (instead of 1c like it calls for) and this made for a thicker icing that drizzled beautifully!
Thanks Sally for another great recipe!
10/10, these were to die for.
I was disappointed in myself. The cookies were delicious but I should have baked them without the curd and added it after baking.
Why is my dough so thick..? The recipe said it should be creamy. I added as much flour as the recipe told me to. Just a little confused right now lol
Hi Alysha, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t overmeasured. Too much flour can make the dough seem overly thick and even a bit dry.
How do I thin out the dough? I think I added to much flour and I don’t have time to do the recipe again.
Hi Alysha, adding back more liquids would then throw off the other ratio of ingredients. You can try baking the cookies as is, otherwise, it’s best to start from scratch.
I made these over the week-end and they were a BIG hit ! It was like eating a piece of lemon merengue pie but as a cookie . I used a cookie scoop and did NOT rool them in the sugar nor did I drizzle them with frosting . I used the backside of a round measuring spoon to form the depressions as it gave me more control . The lemon curd went together very easily and will become part of my home-made gift giving .
Is there a recipe for the filling to be raspberry lemon curd? Thank you
The taste is amazing! But like others have commented, mine spread way too much. The 2nd time I made these, I put the filled cookies in the fridge for over an hour and they were still a mess.
This cookie was definitely tasty, but not a looker. I had the same problem as 90% of other commenters with spreading. For reference, I made both the curd and cookie dough a day before I baked them. Both of them were refrigerated overnight. Because of all the comments spreading, I additionally refrigerated for 2.5 hours after I rolled them into balls. I’m wondering if the spreading issue is more one of the lack of any leavening agent. I make thumbprint cookies frequently in a variety flavors and this is the only time I’ve had an issue with spreading. While my curd did not leak out of the cookie, I did find the texture a little gritty and sticky, and it paled quite a bit. I mad the lemon curd from this site and it turned out great and was delicious. I wonder if adding the curd midway through the bake, or simply at the end of the baking after they are cooled might alleviate that problem. In the end, they tasted very lemony and yummy, but I would not make them again as written.
I love these tangy lemony cookies. My cookies spreads to a flat cookie. Not sure why.
Hi Susan! Here are our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading. Starting with proper room temperature is most important!
Terrific recipe. I just got a jar of violet jelly as a gift. Could I use that for the filling instead of the lemon curd?
Absolutely! Keep in mind that the lemon flavor won’t be as strong without the lemon curd, so we recommend keeping the lemon icing on top. (For that pop of lemon flavor!)
Thanks. What about increasing the lemon zest by a teaspoon or 2?
These are spring in a cookie! Lemony, tender, and very cute. They couldn’t have turned out any better, if I say so myself. In order to achieve as-close-to-Sally results I always use a scale to measure ingredients when weights are given. For this recipe I also weighed the dough balls for consistent cookie size. I used a round half-teaspoon dipped in the rolling sugar, to make perfectly round little indents. What I learned: do not overfill the indentations. The curd bubbles as the cookies bake and will spill out onto the baking mat and burn. Not tragic but you’ll lose some filling. Also fix cracks that occur when making the indentations – another filling escape route. This isn’t a spur-of-the-moment cookie. There’s lots of prep to these – making curd, zesting and squeezing, chilling, and shaping. The result is delightful and a very satisfying accomplishment.
These turned out very well. I used store bought curd, and did some with lemon curd and some with raspberry curd. I noticed people had issues with spreading, so I put the shaped cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking and that seem to do the trick. Also make sure you measure your flour properly! The cookies are very buttery. My glaze was a bit thin so that did spread out and didn’t leave the cute drizzle appearance, but still tasted good so I can’t complain.
Made these cookies for Easter Sunday. My family thinks they are great. The cookies have a wonderful lemon flavor and the sweetness from the drizzle on top balances it all out. They are easy to make, look beautiful, and are delicious.
This recipe was so flavorful! My self proclaimed “Lemonholic “ neighbor loved the treat I left on her doorstep ! I also used the extra lemon curd to mix into my Greek yogurt as a treat !
i saw the recipe and it has lemon zest, but I only have lime zest, is that ok?
Hi Star, for a lime flavor, that will work fine!
I baked a batch of these today using raspberry jam as filling. They are perfect! Great flavour and thumbprints are much easier to make than I expected. I also baked “big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies” and both types are in a cookie box heading to my daughter at university. Sally your recipes are so reliable technically, thanks!
Can you pre-roll the cookies and then chill? Or, if the dough is too soft to chill that way, better to put it in square or rectangle container and cut the pieces needed. I’ve been chilling dough in cookie or tube shape because dealing with a hard cookie dough mound is always quite annoying.
Hi Elspeth, you can certainly try it, but the dough is quite creamy so we find it best to chill before rolling.
Lovely tender cookie with quite a punch of lemon. Maybe too lemony for me personally? I think the next time I make them I’ll use vanilla icing instead of the lemon icing. Otherwise this recipe was perfect.
Hi Sally! I have a question – what fat content does the butter have that you used for test baking these cookies? I’m based in Europe and our butter has a higher fat content, meaning that with the recipe’s exact measurements, we might see more spreading. Considering how many of the comments reported spreading, I was wondering whether the 82-86% fat content in European butter might be responsible. My flat cookies are still absolutely delicious, but I will probably use a touch less butter when making them again!
Hi Rieke, what a great comment and question. I do not use European-style butter in these cookies. I usually use butter with 80% butterfat content. I think reducing the butter when using a higher butterfat percentage would be helpful to ease the over-spreading.
SO tasty! Mine definitely didn’t turn out as pretty as the photo (they spread more and I whisked the homemade lemon curd too vigorously, making it bubbly and more beige than yellow), but they taste like lemon heaven! Will definitely make again.
This is exactly what I have been looking for for a lemon cookie for my Christmas tree. Everyone raved about the flavor. I made lemon curd for the first time and it turned out really well. I but back in the refrigerator after I prepared them for baking
I could drink the lemon icing! I ended up using raspberry jam because I love the raspberry/lemon combo. And the lemon curd recipe intimidated me a bit. These were a great hit in my holiday cookie box! I liked that I could adjust the size to make the dough stretch a bit too.
Another disappointing recipe from Sally. Lost 1/2 my curd even after chilling. And this was after the expensive loss of the pecan bars. Sally’s recipes aren’t the same tried and true anymore. I’m done and unfollowing her recipes
Weird. I made this today and it came out perfect. Not a waste for me! Found all my baking has improved from following her recipes. Sorry it didn’t work out for you. Merry Christmas!
I was worried after reading early reviews. I did a few things that I think helped keep me on track! I kept the dough chilled as I went through the roll, press, fill stages. I made deep indentations – sometimes following up with a knuckle press when my thumb failed me. I chilled unbaked cookies and trays 5-10 minutes before they went in the oven. And I think this might be the key – I used a quarter teaspoon to scoop the curd. I found with a half teaspoon, it was hard to get exactly the right amount. With a quarter, I could do heaping spoons and also not worry about whether every bit was scraped out of the spoon. Basically I think I tricked my brain into not overfilling them. Worked great!
These cookies are spectacular!! So much lemon flavor. I did use premade lemon curd just because I had a lot going on with Christmas cookie baking and it made
things easier. Highly recommend letting your formed and filled cookies sit back in the fridge for half an hour or so. I did and had no issues whatsoever with overspreading.
This was a bit of a challenging recipe for me as I had some issues with spreading/curd spilling out while baking on several cookies, but most turned out well and the end result is really delicious. I think these will be a hit on my cookie tray at Christmas.