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, 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
These are so delicious! They’re tart and taste like little lemon bars! Everybody loved them!
I believe the cornstarch in this recipe added a strange savory flavor, reminded me of pizza dough perhaps due to cornmeal commonly used. I substituted raspberry jam for the lemon curd and white chocolate drizzle for the icing and that was all delicious. The cookies set up nicely and didn’t spread too much, just not very sweet and had the off flavor.
Aw man I had such high hopes for this recipe. Like others I followed it EXACTLY and while it didn’t spread out too much they flattened and the curd leaked. They don’t look very appetizing.
My cookies spread, and the curd subsequently ran out. I see that other commentators have had the same experience, and that the website moderators have suggested it is due to overly warm butter. I’m not sure that is the situation that I encountered, however, as I chilled the dough for 2 days and chilled it again after I rolled the cookies and fill them with the curd. I had two sheets of cookies to bake, so I chilled the first set after rolling and filling them for 15 minutes, bake them, and had massive spread. The second sheet had fewer cookies on it and chilled for 45 minutes before baking. Again massive spread and leaking curd. Others who have tried this recipe had no problems, and there appears to be a group of people who made some modifications after encountering some problems. I’m not an experienced enough home Baker to try to figure out what I need to do differently next time, so I’ll move on to a different recipe. I will say that if your cookies spread, keep in mind that the flavor is still intensely lemony, and although they won’t look like some cookies they will certainly be Delicious lemon cookies. I know my husband and family will enjoy these on Christmas.
I can’t stop thinking about the varied results people are getting fir these cookies, with several people having the same problem I had: cookies spread, would not hold the shape of the thumbprint, and curd ran out. I wonder if it could be a difference between weights and measures. I noticed the recipe included some ingredients in grams and others in volume. I used the King Arthur Flour online resource for conversions and found a discrepancy for the AP flour weight that was given. When I made the cookies, I used weights when they were given, but I cannot recall I did the same for the curd. My curd was quite runny straight from the fridge, which may have impacted the integrity of the cookie. In future, I’ll aim to use all weights or all volume fircan entire recipe.
Unrelated, I wanted to mention that I had quite a lot of lemon zest available, so I rubbed it into the dusting sugar. I think that is another good way to intensify the lemon flavor.
I wish I could like this recipe, since the accompanying lemon curd one is so good. The difference between homemade and store bought lemon curd is night and day.
That was the only thing that worked for this recipe for me. The dough is pretty unforgiving—it seems like it’s too stiff cold or too soft out of the fridge and no in-between. When baked after chilling as instructed (I did until the dough was stiff again shaped), it spread a lot. Tried using less curd, tried chilling more. After reading some other comments the culprit might be too-softened butter since I weighed all my ingredients—but after investing 6 hours between making the lemon curd, making the dough, rearranging my fridge, letting the dough chill, trying to shape cookies and baking several test ones at a time and having them fail, I just can’t bring myself to give this recipe another try. Still eternally grateful for the lemon curd recipe.
Same experience. Tasted yummy despite not looking like thumbprint cookies.
My family loves this recipe! I have made it many times and always use Ridiculously Easy Microwave Lemon Curd from another website because it is so easy to make and doesn’t require a double broiler. These cookies are perfect!
How many cookies does this recipe make using the tablespoon method
This recipe makes 36-40 cookies.
These are very good. The dough was too cold to scoop after being in the fridge so I had to let it warm. I had no problem with spreading. Cookies puffed up and stayed puffed. They didn’t lightly brown despite staing longer than called for in the oven. I think I made the balls too big. But, no harm done.
LOVE this recipe! These are some of my favorite cookies. I want to try it with almond flavoring this time instead of vanilla. Have you tried this before? Thanks!
Hi Olivia, I haven’t personally tried that but you could certainly could!
This was a great recipe. I let the dough chill overnight and returned dough to fridge after filling pans one at a time. Cooked for 15 minutes. Best results for removing was to let pan cool completely (more than 1 hr) and then gently twist and lift. That technique worked perfectly!! Came up with it after”loosing” several cookies trying to take them from tin after 10 minutes
Don’t skip or sub the mascarpone. Wonderful!!!
Hi Sally! Thank you for putting out this recipe. I’m getting ready to make these. Do you think it would be ok to roll the dough balls in powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar before baking them? Thank you in advance!
Hi Maniccanoe, You can certainly try it, we roll these lemon crinkle cookies in confectioners’s sugar before baking.
What a waste of a day, I followed the directions to the letter including putting them back in the fridge while the oven heated, they spread everywhere the curd is all over the place.
The cookies were delicious but they spread out and did not hold thumb print. Am I making them too small ?
Hi Marcia, Here are our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading. Starting with proper room temperature butter is most important!
I want to try making these with thumbprint cookie molds. Will the dough work for that??
Hi Melissa, we haven’t tried, but can’t see why not!
The recipe is great! What should I do if I want my cookie to be orange flavor (I’m trying to make a dessert with both fruits)? Do you think it would work well?
Hi Gene, You can replace the lemon with orange in the cookie dough. And you can definitely make orange curd with this recipe. We do recommend using at least *some* lemon juice in the curd with the orange juice for best flavor.
Do these baked and filled cookies freeze well?
Yes! Baked and cooled cookies freeze well for up to 3 months.
Just took a look at the cookies in the oven – they are now one huge cookie as they’ve overspread. Odd as I weighed everything before mixing and chilled before and after making, before cooking. Kinda disappointed! Any ideas where I went wrong?
Hi Janice! The most common culprit of over-spreading cookies is starting with butter that’s too warm. Room temperature butter is cooler than most think!
Sounds delicious. I have a question though. Could I add the lemon curd after baking the cookies?
Hi Leslie! It is best to bake the curd with the cookie so it sets up.
Does filling the cookies prior to baking concentrate the flavor of the curd or jam? I’m guessing it would thicken. The thumbprint cookies I’ve made in past (Joy of Cooking) were filled afterwards so was wondering if it helps with flavor and/or makes them less messy to store. Thank you!
Hi Lauren, baking the lemon curd/jam with the cookies helps the filling to “set” a bit more. Hope you enjoy these cookies!
Thank you Sally, your recipes are so very reliable, these turned out exactly as expected. I used passion fruit curd (shop bought) instead of lemon. Delicious!
Making these tomorrow! Can i freeze them after baked! Thank you thisnis my first question to you ever!
Hi Carol, Baked and cooled cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Enjoy!
These cookies are delicious; tastes a lot like our favorite lemon squares. After baking one dozen, I reduced the dough balls to 1/2 tablespoon, and proceeded as instructed. A little less spreading, but all the flavor. I live in Hawaii where it’s hot and humid. It’s difficult to get butter softened and dough chilled properly.
Had some leftover lemon curd I made a couple of days ago, and found this recipe while looking for a suitable birthday treat for a co-worked that utilized lemon curd. They turned out beautifully and were a hit at the office! Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi there, can I omit cornstarch? Or what can I use as a substitute?
Hi Mariana, you can replace with 1 extra Tbsp of flour.
These were so good!! I’m using my leftover curd to make another batch today. Delicious!
These cookies look great! How many lemons total would they use up, including the lemon curd? Also, is the icing necessary for the taste? I plan to make a large batch for about 50 or so people and use up my many lemons in the process. So if the icing is really messy it might be better not to add.
Thank you so much for all your great recipes! This is my go-to website whenever I want to bake 🙂
Hi Saorsa, the exact number of lemons will vary depending on their size. For the lemon curd: 1 Tablespoon lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
1/3 cup (80ml) and fresh lemon juice (about 2–3 lemons). For these cookies: 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest and 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice plus the 2 Tablespoons (30ml) fresh lemon juice. You can leave off the icing if you want, but it will set at room temperature after about 30 minutes, and then you can stack, store, transport, and gift the cookies.
Would homemade fig jam work for these cookies?
Hi Phyllis, should work great!
Perfect balance of sweet and tangy. So buttery and sugary, but the lemon was popping! 10/10. So good. However, I didn’t use Sallie’s lemon curd recipe though, I already had some homemade curd I made from a week ago, and needed to get rid of it. So this was a great use of curd! Great recipe.
Delicious
Recipe requiring patience, my tip;
1) Chill dough
2) Roll balls and roll in sugar – chill
3) 1/4 teaspoon indent – chill
4) Fill piping bag with curd, dispense – chill
5)Bake!
Perfectly uniform, EASY fill with piping bag, and easy to control quantity!