Lemon Curd Cookies are soft, gooey lemon cookies filled with homemade sweet and tart lemon curd. The cookies do not require any chilling. They are super lemony and great for a spring or summer treat.
Making the lemon cookies is super simple and I've provided all the details with step-by-step instructions for making the lemon curd along with plenty of tips and tricks.
I make the cookies with 2 teaspoons of lemon extract, which can be found at a regular grocery store, and half a package of cream cheese. The cream cheese helps to make the cookies gooey and rich. The lemon curd is made with the zest and juice of two lemons for layers of lemon flavor in every cookie.
When I am craving a lemon dessert, I also love to make this Raspberry Lemon Loaf Cake, bright, spongy, and filled with tart lemon and sweet fresh raspberries, or this Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake, or Lemon Blueberry Cookies. These Mini Egg Bars are also great for spring or Easter.
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🌟 Why You'll Love These Cookies
Sweet and Tart: These cookies are both sweet from the cookie and tart from the lemon curd, such a fun combination.
Soft Chewy Cookies: The cookies are so soft and chewy. They are so good they can be eaten on their own.
Spring Cookies: These cookies are great for a warm spring day but also for special occasions like Easter or Mother's Day.
🔎 Recipe Development: What Works And What Didn't
With half a package of cream cheese and a stick of butter, along with a single egg yolk, these cookies are very rich. Instead of adding lemon zest or lemon juice to the cookie dough, I opted to simply add 2 teaspoons of lemon extract.
Below is an overview of what worked and what didn't when doing the recipe development for these Lemon Curd Cookies.
- Lemon Juice: I have made a ton of different lemon cookies over the years to try to get the right balance of lemon while still maintaining soft and gooey cookies. Once you start adding lemon juice to the cookie dough it’s hard to keep the right consistency in the dough. The dough becomes too soft and “watered down”. This requires you to compensate with extra flour which throws off the balance of wet to dry ingredients.
- Lemon Zest: You could add fresh lemon zest to the dough which would add to the lemon flavor, but you’d have to add a lot to get that really lemony taste. And because you are already making lemon curd from scratch, skipping the zest in the cookies is a nice corner to cut to simplify the steps involved in this dessert.
- Lemon Extract: I have tried many variations of lemon cookies using lemon juice and lemon zest to avoid or limit using lemon extract. In the end, the best way to get the right lemon cookie is to add lemon extract.
- Skip the Egg White: The cookie recipe calls for only 1 egg yolk, rather than a whole egg. Skipping the egg white prevents the cookies from being too poofy and lends extra richness and color from the yolk to the cookies.
- Egg Yolks in the Lemon Curd: I use three egg yolks. Adding more than three egg yolks in the curd results in a lemon curd that tastes more like egg and less like lemon. Egg yolks are very rich, and can quickly overpower other flavors.
🛒 Ingredients
Below are the ingredients needed to make the cookie part of the Lemon Curd Cookies.
- Cream Cheese: Use full-fat cream cheese from a bar, not whipped cream cheese.
- Butter: Use softened butter. If you have not already softened your butter add the butter to your mixing bowl and microwave for 1 minute at 20 percent power. Flip the butter over and add another minute at 20 percent power.
- Granulated Sugar: For sweetness.
- Salt: To balance and bring out flavors.
- Baking Powder: For leavening. Check to make sure that it has not expired.
- Vanilla Extract: Use real vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla. If you bake regularly consider buying a large bottle of vanilla extract from Costco, which is more economical than buying small bottles at the grocery store.
- Lemon Extract: Adds lemon flavor. It can be found at most large grocery stores.
- Egg Yolk: Use the egg yolk only, adding the egg white will negatively impact the consistency of the cookies.
- Flour: Use all-purpose unbleached flour.
Below are the ingredients needed to make the Lemon Curd.
- Egg Yolks: Use only the egg yolks.
- Lemon Zest: Zest only the bright yellow outermost portion of the lemon, not the lighter inner pith, which can be bitter. Use a zester or the smallest grate on a box grater.
- Lemon Juice: Once you've zested the lemons, juice all three, then measure out ½ cup of the lemon juice, which will be most of the juice of all three lemons. If you do not have a juicer or citrus reamer, soften the lemon by rolling and squeezing it between the palm of your hand and the counter. Then cut the lemon in half and squeeze each half of the lemon around the prongs of a fork.
- Granulated Sugar: Balances the tartness of the lemon juice.
- Salt: Balances the sweet and tart.
📝 How to Make Lemon Curd Cookies
Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make Lemon Curd Cookies.
Note: The recipe card with instructions, ingredient list, and quantities is included further below these step-by-step photos.
Step 1. Preheat the oven to 325℉. In a large bowl combine the softened cream cheese, softened butter, and granulated sugar.
Expert Tip: These cookies are baked at 325℉, which is slightly lower than the more typical 350℉. This helps to create an extra gooey soft cookie and prevents browning.
Step 2. Add the salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and egg yolk and combine. This can be done by hand, with a hand mixer, or a stand mixer. If using a stand mixer be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that the ingredients are incorporated evenly.
Step 3. Add the flour and combine.
Step 4. Roll approximately 2 tablespoons worth of dough into round balls and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 9 minutes at 325℉.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and use the bottom of a rounded teaspoon or the back end of a cooking tool such as a whisk (not your fingers) to create an indentation in the center of each cookie.
Expert Tip: Create the indentation in the cookie while the cookies are still warm. This will help the cookies to hold the indented shape.
If you make the indentation before the cookies are baked, the indentation will change shape as the cookies bake in the oven and you will not get a nice round indentation in the center.
🍋 How to Make Lemon Curd
Below are the step-by-step instructions for how to make lemon curd which will be used to fill the cookies.
Step 1. Add the egg yolks to a medium mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
Step 2. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, granulated sugar, and salt to a small saucepan, cover, and bring to a simmer at medium heat.
Step 3. Tempering The Eggs: Slowly add the hot lemon mixture to the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly. Then pour the combined mixture back into the saucepan and continue stirring (without stopping) for anywhere between 3-10 minutes.
The timing all depends on how hot your stove is, the thickness of your saucepan, and the surface area of your saucepan (the larger the surface area the more water will evaporate at a time). Look for a consistency such that the curd coats the back of a spoon, but it is not so thick that lines remain when you pull the whisk through the curd. You do not want the consistency to be too thick when you remove it from the stove as it will continue to thicken when it cools.
Step 4. Keep whisking the curd as you remove it from the heat and pour it through a fine mesh strainer. This creates an ultra-smooth consistency. Allow the curd to cool fully.
Expert Tip: Do not let the curd sit in the hot saucepan after removing it from the heat on the stove. If you do the residual heat could scramble the eggs.
Step 5: Prepping to Pipe the Curd: Turn a gallon or quart-sized plastic bag inside out over a glass or use a pastry bag. Fill the bag with the lemon curd, such that the curd is pressed into one of the corners of the bag. Twist the bag so the filling does not squeeze out above your fist while holding the bag. Use scissors to cut the tip off the end of the bag.
Step 6: Fill the Cookies: Use the bag to pipe the lemon curd into the indentations of each of the cookies.
Expert Tip: Do not move the cookies off the baking sheet until they have fully cooled. They are very soft cookies and moving them too quickly will cause them to become misshapen.
Lemon Curd vs. Lemon Filling
Lemon curd and lemon filling are similar, but different from one another.
- Lemon curd is sharper and more tart than lemon filling. It is only made with eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar (and I added a pinch of salt).
- Lemon filling is also creamier and can be eaten on its own, whereas curd is typically added to another dessert, such as cookies, or the filling of a layer cake. Lemon filling can include cornstarch and water.
Above is a photo of lemon curd vs. lemon filling. The brighter yellow curd is on the top, and the softer creamier lemon filling is on the bottom. You can make these cookies with either lemon curd or lemon filling. Both will taste great. I have included the recipe for curd below. However, I do have a separate recipe for Lemon Pie Filling if you would prefer that instead.
If you have extra leftover Lemon Curd, it would be perfect for this Lemon Curd Ice Cream.
Lemon Curd Cookie FAQs:
Yes, Lemon Curd cookies need to be refrigerated. Store any leftover cookies or curd in the fridge.
Lemon curd won’t thicken if it hasn’t cooked down long enough on the stove to remove excess water content from the lemon juice. Cook the curd until it coats the back of the spoon and drips off the spoon slowly. It will continue to thicken as it cools to room temperature. This may take some time, up to 10 minutes depending on the water content of the mixture, the temperature of the stove, and the size and thickness of the saucepan.
Cook the lemon curd on medium heat. Somewhere in the range of 4-5 on a scale of 10 on the stovetop. If you’re nervous about curdling the eggs, you can reduce the temperature and stir for longer until the excess water cooks off resulting in a thicker curd.
Store lemon curd cookies in the fridge in a single layer so as to not smash the lemon curd filling in the cookie.
The lemon curd is done when it coats the back of a spoon and the drips off the spoon start to slow down (i.e. it doesn’t just run off the spoon like water).
If you're interested in more lemon desserts you may love these:
Lemon Pie without Meringue: Buttery shortbread crust filled with a tangy, fresh lemon filling, skipping the lemon meringue altogether.
Blueberry Lemon Cookies: A sweet simple cookie filled with blueberries and tangy lemon flavor.
Raspberry Lemon Loaf: The BEST loaf cake, super sweet, lemony throughout, and studded with fresh raspberries.
If you tried these Lemon Curd Cookies or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Lemon Curd Cookies
Ingredients
Lemon Cookies
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
Lemon Curd
- 3 large egg yolks
- zest of 3 lemons
- ½ cup lemon juice, approximately 3 lemons
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Lemon Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 325℉.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, butter, and granulated sugar.
- Add the salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and egg yolk and combine.
- Add the flour and combine.
- Using approximately 2 tablespoon worth of dough, shape the dough into round balls. Place on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Upon removing the cookies from the oven create an indentation in the middle of each of the round cookies. If you have a round 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, use the back of this to make the indention. Otherwise, the rounded end of a cooking tool, like a whisk will do the trick. Allow to cool fully before moving to a drying rack to prevent misshapen cookies.
Lemon Curd
- In a medium bowl whisk the egg yolks.
- In a separate medium saucepan, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Place on medium heat and bring to a simmer.
- While whisking the egg yolks constantly, add the simmering lemon juice mixture to the egg yolks. Then add the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan and return to medium heat, whisking constantly for 3-5 minutes or as much as 10 minutes until thickened. Whisk constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling.Keep in mind that stovetop temperatures can vary for any given temperature setting. The actual temperature and resulting impact on the food depend on the stove that you are using (gas vs electric), stovetop brand, size of the burner, surface area, thickness of the saucepan, etc. You may need to adjust the cooking time based on your kitchen setup.
- To create a smooth curd, strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
Assembling the Cookies
- Place the cooled lemon curd in a piping bag (or a gallon bag with the tip cut off) and fill the indentations of each cookie with lemon curd. You can also do this with two small spoons.
- Keep the cookies in a single layer (don’t stack on them top of each other) to prevent the lemon curd in the cookies from getting smashed.
- Store any leftover cookies in the refrigerator.
Jane Simple says
What if i don't have any cream cheese?
Lauren says
Hi Jane, If you don't have cream cheese, I would recommend making these cookies: https://www.elleandpear.com/soft-drop-sugar-cookies/ but add 2 teaspoons lemon extract and 2-4 tablespoons more flour. This is to make the cookies a bit heftier to hold up when filling them with lemon curd. Then add the lemon curd filling from the Lemon Curd Cookie recipe. Let me know how it goes!