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
Hi!
I made the cranberry curd for the cranberry tart – would that work in this recipe?
Without a doubt! Let us know how you like them.
These look great. Can I skip the rolling in sugar step?
Yes, you can if you would like.
To prevent over spreading, what do you think about baking these in a mini muffin pan? I think I’ll try it, but I was wondering if anyone has ever tried it
Hi Kristen! They may end up more cup-shaped, but it should work!
Can I omit the almond?
Hi Erika, there is no almond or almond extract in this recipe.
Can these and/or the almond thumbprint recipes be used with a thumbprint stamp, or do you have any suggestions for modifications to make it work? Love both recipes and they have become Christmas cookie staples but I bought some beautiful thumbprint stamps and don’t know if I’ll need a different recipe for it.
Hi Sage! Thumbprint cookie stamps usually work best for rolled out/cut out cookie dough doughs, and these particular doughs are really best as rolled cookies.
If I am going to freeze the balls to bake later do I still need to chill the dough? Can’t wait to make them. Have some yummy blueberry jam I bought when visiting Maine that I will use to fill them. Love a lemon/blueberry dessert!
Hi CTravis, we do still recommend chilling the dough before freezing. This will set the cookie dough balls’ shape, and prevent them from sticking together in the freezer container. See How to Freeze Cookie Dough for more on this process. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Could you put a meringue on top of these cookies instead of icing??
Can’t see why not!
question : no leveling in recipe ?
Hi Gail, correct—there typically is not any baking soda or baking powder in shortbread recipes.
hi sally!
your website has been my go-to for any baking endeavours over the past few years. not a single one of your recipes has ever failed me, and that holds for this one as well!
as written, i chose to make my own lemon curd for this recipe. it was so easy and delicious, never expected it to be so easy! i go crazy for anything citrus, so this is definitely something i’ll be going back to.
as for the thumbprints, i chose to fill half the batch with the lemon curd and the other half with a hibiscus apple jam i made last week. i loved both versions! the only adjustment i made was rubbing lemon zest into sugar with my fingertips before baking. i think this is actually a tip i saw on here, i’m not sure.. but rubbing the zest directly into the sugar always gives me a more full, bright pop of lemon flavour, especially in the dough! my oven took a little less than 12 minutes (something like 9-10) so i rolled my dough balls in the lemon sugar as well.
the oils from the zest just make this one phenomenal. i’ll have to work on making the thumbprints more even in depth and width (i used the back of a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon) but these are so delicious and pretty too! thanks again!
Hey sally, I love your recipes they are so good. My dad is a huge lemon fan, and I am making these for some company. I am not done them, but the dough and the curd are absolutely amazing. I have made the curd before, using a metal whisk, but the flavour didn’t bother me so that was great. I would even eat the curd by itself! Thanks for all the recipes, have a great day!
I have been looking at the thumbprint cookie recipes and am excited to eventually make all of them. I have decided to start with the raspberry almond thumbprint. I have a question. However, there is no “Leave a Comment” section on the recipe for the raspberry almond thumbprint, so I will ask my question here. I understand the dough needs to chill for 3 hours. In many other recipes, there is usually mention of making the dough the night before. There is no mention of that in the raspberry almond recipe. Can the dough be made the night before?
Hi Joyce! Yes, absolutely.
I made these with homemade curd and everything. I chilled the dough for 5 hours, chilled while I was rolling the cookies, chilled when the oven was preheating, but once I baked them, they all spread and completely flattened. Did I do something wrong?
Hi Bryan, happy to help. Here are our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading. Starting with proper room temperature butter is most important!
A wonderful balance of sweet and tart. These cookies are delicious. As I tried to make the thumbprint with my thumb, the cookie slightly cracked so I tried a small melon baller and it made the perfect sized indent for the lemon curd and didn’t crack the dough. Used Sallys lemon curd recipe, yum !! Highly recommend this recipe !!!!
What can I say but WOW!
These are great!
I made these today as written. I used Trader Joes lemon curd. Took them to a small event and they were the talk of the cookie table! Everyone absolutely loved them. I did make them 24g each (which made about 30) and found using a little less than 1/2 t curd was better. It still ran out of the indents a bit. No one cared. I started with cold butter that I chopped in 2T chunks and microwaved for about 8 seconds until my finger made an imprint but nothing melted. I made a 1 inch thick “pancake” from the dough, wrapped with plastic wrap and chilled exactly 3 hr. I weighed, balled, rolled and filled then put them back in fridge for 10-20min, on parchment paper. When ready, they went straight from fridge to oven…I pulled the parchment paper onto a stone that was already hot in oven. No spreading! Just leaky curd on some. Next time I’ll try homemade curd. And I’ll make the glaze a little thicker so it stays in lines and not blurs into the curd. There WILL be a “next time.”. My husband is hoping that it’ll be later this week because it was the only cookie at the event that completely disappeared! Haha
I have made these several times and everyone loves them. I don’t roll them in sugar or drizzle the frosting. The most recent time I was distracted and added too much butter (2 full sticks), so I placed the dough balls in a mini-muffin pan to restrict the spreading . This worked beautifly!
These were amazing! I made the dough two days ago and baked today. I recently made blueberry lavender jam that had a little lemon in it, so I thought it would be a good combo. So I saved time, not having to make the lemon curd. They turned out beautiful and delicious. Note: They took longer in my gas oven.. about 15 minutes.
Me and my mom are big lemon lovers! We make lemon Madelines, lemon cupcakes, lemon cakes, lemon slushies, lemon this, lemon that. WE LOVE LEMON!!!!! So this will be great (my mouth is watering just typing lemon )
I want to make these for the farmers market but per the law in my state I can’t use lemon curd. Do you think it would be ok to use lemon jelly instead?
Hi Melinda, can’t see why not!
These are just perfect. I had time so I was very careful with measurements and directions. The cookies are so tender, they almost melt in your mouth. The flavor is tart and sweet, simply delicious. They’ll make a fine finale for Easter brunch.
Hi Sally,
I am making these cookies for after Easter dinner and I want to bake ahead and freeze the baked cookies so do I still add the lemon curd to the middle? or do you recommend I freeze the baked cookies and add the lemon curd after they defrost?
Thank you!
Hi Michelle, we would freeze them with the curd baked in – hope they’re a hit!
I tried making this, but when it came to the baking part, it was an immediate flop for the cookie dough started spreading. Also, once it cooled, the cookie just wouldn’t remove with breaking. I don know what is wrong because I copied the recipe to the exact measurements.
Hi Jayden, Here are our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading. Starting with proper room temperature butter is most important. It sounds like they spread too much and then baked thin and crispy, which made them prone to baking when removed from the baking sheet. We hope this helps for your next batch!
The taste is delicious and I really love the lemon curd that I made using your recipe too. However, it seems my dough is way too creamy, sticky and soft. It didn’t even get as firm as yours seems to be while leaving it in the fridge overnight. I baked off 1/3d of the recipe and the cookies seem to spread quite a bunch because of this I think. The other part is still in the freezer, any way I can try and salvage that dough?
Hi Gina, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Was your butter a bit too warm? That’s usually the culprit when dough is too soft. Here’s more on what room temperature butter really means—it may be cooler than you think! Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do with the dough at this point, but baking is cold from the freezer should help with the spreading. We’re glad you still enjoyed them!
I make these to give to a shelter for abused and exploited women. The director told me they love lemon but don’t get too many lemon sweet treats. These cookies are perfect to give these ladies something special and they bake up so easily with the store bought lemon curd. I usually put the glaze in a pastry bag for a more even drizzle.
The cookies taste great. I rolled the dough out and used a thumprint stamp and it worked well, just had to freeze the dough before baking. However, the curd keeps puffing up and then falling as the cookies cool. They look awful. I made my own curd using sallys recipe. I tried altering baking temp and time. I’ve tried parbaking the cookies, adding the curd, and finishing the bake as well. That worked the best but isn’t consistent enough to work. I decided to switch the curd to a jam and then I’ll make a lemon drizzle to finish. Maybe buy the curd if you plan on making these.
Amazing! One thing – when I chill for more than a few hours, the dough when I press my thumb into it tends to break! What should I do differently?
Hi Leah! You can let the dough sit and warm up just a bit at room temperature before pressing the thumbprints to prevent cracking.
I made this recipe at Christmas time and all my cookies fell flat. They still tasted delicious though. After reading through comments and your post on proper room temperature butter, I made the recipe again today and the cookies turned out perfectly. I never realized how important the consistency of butter truly is.
Thrilled to read this, Beth! So glad they turned out this time.
I was making a batch for a memorial service that was in a few days, but the first batch disappeared so quickly that I made a few additional batches cause I couldnt keep them in the house, nor could I bake them fast enough.
They are a great hit and addition to our pantry!
These are wonderful and were a hit at Christmas! I bought a jar of lemon curd because I didn’t want the extra work during the holidays. The tang of the lemon curd makes them so special – kind of like a lemon bar in cookie form!
I started making this recipe before reading the reviews because I trust my girl Sally! She’s never lead me astray. Buut I did make the mistake of scrolling down to the reviews once the dough was chilling. I got a little worried things were going to turn into a soupy mess. Lesson learned, never doubt my girl Sally! They came out perfect, exactly as written. I typically prefer to bake by weight, but was in an unfamiliar kitchen so I didn’t have a scale. They still came out fantastic. The only *slight* difference in my bake was that I chilled the shaped cookies in the freezer instead of the fridge before baking them off. Another 10/10 recipe! Chefs kiss. I’ve never posted a recipe review but I’d hate for the negative reviews to discourage anyone from making these fab little cookies.
I do wonder if others perhaps didn’t thicken their curd enough??