Lemon Biscuits

If you love lemon-flavored bakes, you need to make these Lemon Biscuits. Crumbly shortbread-style cookies sandwiched together with a creamy lemon frosting. The ultimate afternoon tea time biscuit with real lemon flavour.

These are the perfect biscuits to make when you are looking for an easy recipe that goes well with a cup of tea!

If you're looking for other delicious biscuit recipes, try out this recipe for Jam Sandwich Cookies or this recipe for ClemenGold Cookies. For more delicious recipes have a look at my recipe index page which is filled with easy bakes!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Instructions for lemon biscuits
• Instructions for lemon frosting
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• Top tip
• 📖 Recipe
• FAQ

Ingredients

You will need the basic ingredients listed below to make these lemon butter biscuits. Make sure you are using fresh room temperature ingredients.

• Unsalted butter
• Castor sugar
• Extra-large eggs
• Cake flour
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Fresh lemons
• Icing sugar
• Whole milk

Unsalted butter - always choose unsalted butter when baking, and just taste with table salt separately.

Vanilla extract - choose a quality vanilla extract for this recipe.

Fresh lemons - you will be using the zest and the juice of the lemons. Fresh lemon juice has a greater more natural flavor when compared to bottled lemon juice.

See the recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

For this easy biscuit recipe, you will be making lemon cookie dough and lemon frosting. Start with the cookie dough as it needs time to chill before rolling and baking.

Instructions for lemon biscuits

STEP 1: Cream butter and sugar. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar. Beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

STEP 2: Add the eggs. First, add the whole egg to the creamed mixture with the motor running, and beat until combined. Scrape down the side of the bowl and beat again. Then add the egg yolk and beat until well combined.

STEP 3: Add the vanilla and lemon zest. Add the vanilla and lemon zest to the sugar and egg mixture and mix until just combined.

STEP 4: Add the dry ingredients. Sift together the flour and salt and add this to the biscuit mix at once. Mix on medium-low speed until just combined. Remove the dough from the bowl, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 40 minutes.

STEP 5: Roll. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out to ½ cm ( ¼ inch) thickness on a floured surface using a rolling pin. Cut out the cookies using a cookie cutter, for this recipe I used a flower shape 7cm (3inch) diameter cutter.

STEP 6: Bake. Place the cookies onto a lined baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven for 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on a cooling rack.

Instructions for lemon frosting

STEP 1: Beat butter and icing sugar. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter and icing sugar. Beat at medium speed until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

STEP 2: Add the milk and vanilla. Combine the milk and vanilla and add this to the icing mixture with the motor running at low speed. Once added increase the speed of the mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Scraping down the sides of the bowl often.

STEP 3: Add lemon juice and zest. Add the lemon juice and zest to the frosting and beat again, until light and fluffy. Add the frosting to a prepared piping bag.

STEP 4: Decorate. Separate the cookies into the bottom and top halves. Pipe a swirl of frosting into the center of all of the bottom half cookies. Place the top half cookie onto the frosting and press them together. Enjoy!

Hint: if the dough becomes hard to roll out because it is too warm. Wrap the biscuit dough in cling film and place it back into the fridge to firm up, sticky dough is almost impossible to roll out.

Variations

You can use any citrus fruit to flavor this cookie dough, clementines, oranges, and even grapefruits will work well. You can do the same for flavoring the buttercream, this recipe is a great way to try out fruity flavors.

Equipment

For these easy lemon biscuits, you will need two large oven trays to bake the cookies on. You will also need a cookie cutter and a piping bag. I like making this dough in an electric mixer but you can also use a hand mixer or food processor.

If you don't have a cookie cutter you can roll this dough into a large sausage shape before chilling it. Once chilled you can cut slices with a sharp knife rather than rolling the dough and using a cookie cutter.

Storage

After the easy lemon cookies have been baked and sandwiched with the lemon frosting, store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

For freezing, the cookie dough can be frozen before baking. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months and bake them at a later date. Thaw the dough in the fridge overnight before using. I do not recommend freezing cookies that have already been frosted.

These lemon cookies are a delicious afternoon treat. Think of them like an upgraded homemade version of lemon cream biscuits made only with natural ingredients! Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments below.

Happy Baking

With Love,

Kitty

📖 Recipe

FAQ