Description
Delicate lemon curd cookies bring sunshine to classic shortbread with their silky tangy center. Italian-inspired pastry meets zesty citrus in a perfectly balanced sweet treat that melts gracefully on your palate.
Ingredients
Scale
Main Ingredients:
- 2 Cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Cup unsalted butter
- ¾ Cup lemon curd
Sweeteners and Flavor Enhancers:
- ½ Cup granulated white sugar
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Egg yolks
Finishing Ingredients:
- 1 Pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a spacious mixing vessel, cream butter and sugar until the mixture transforms into a light, airy consistency, approximately 3-4 minutes.
- Incorporate egg yolks and vanilla extract, blending thoroughly for one minute to create a smooth base.
- Gently fold in flour and salt, stirring until a cohesive dough forms without overmixing.
- Shape the dough into a compact sphere, encase in plastic membrane, and refrigerate for one hour to firm up.
- Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper, ensuring complete surface coverage.
- Extract dough from refrigerator and craft small spherical portions, positioning them with precise spacing on the prepared sheet.
- Using your thumb, craft a gentle indentation in the center of each cookie, creating a perfect vessel for lemon curd.
- Warm the oven to 350°F, allowing it to reach complete temperature equilibrium before baking.
- Slide the tray into the oven, baking until edges turn delicate golden, approximately 12 minutes.
- Transfer cookies to a cooling platform, allowing slight warmth to remain.
- While cookies are still tepid, delicately fill each thumb-pressed center with vibrant lemon curd.
- Allow cookies to completely stabilize at ambient temperature, permitting lemon curd to set.
- Carefully transfer cookies to an hermetic container, layering with parchment paper to prevent adherence.
- Refrigerate and consume within four days for optimal flavor and texture preservation.
Notes
- Chill the dough for at least one hour to ensure the cookies maintain their shape and have a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Use room temperature butter and eggs for smoother mixing and better incorporation of ingredients.
- Create perfect thumb indentations by gently pressing with the back of a rounded teaspoon for uniform cookie centers.
- Let the cookies cool slightly before adding lemon curd to prevent excessive spreading and maintain a clean, neat appearance.
- Lemon curd can be homemade or store-bought, but ensure it’s thick enough to hold its shape in the cookie center.
- Store cookies carefully in the refrigerator to preserve the delicate lemon curd and maintain their fresh, zesty flavor.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Desserts, Snacks
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 12
- Calories: 190
- Sugar: 6 g
- Sodium: 50 mg
- Fat: 10 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 40 mg