These Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies are packed full of poppy seeds and the sweet tangy flavor of lemon. It’s the perfect bite to lift you into a happy mood.
If you haven’t noticed, I am completely obsessed with shortbread of all shapes and sizes, of all flavors and with all mix-ins. So today, I’m adding these Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies to the growing list of shortbread recipes on this blog.
Each time I take a trip to Hawaii, I bring home boat loads of Hawaiian made shortbread cookies. They have so many different and interesting flavors. I can stand in front of the cookie aisle in the grocery store for hours just formulating in my head how I can recreate them at home. So watch out for a lot more shortbread recipes coming your way in the future. Although these Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies are not one of those exotic tropical cookies, the familiar ingredients are easy to obtain and lemon is one of those bright flavors that I never tire of.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Allow butter to soften at room temperature, but not melted. You only want it soft enough to be malleable, but not so much that the cookie dough becomes a sticky mess.
- I use a fluted Linzer cookie cutter without the insert for this recipe, but any similar size cookie cutter will work perfectly.
- Freezing the sliced cookies before baking will allow them to keep their shape better in the oven and is absolutely necessary in my book.
I struggled with whether to add icing to these cookies or not. I ended up not adding icing to avoid cleaning up extra messes. But I think a thin layer of lemon icing would give these an extra lemony punch. If you’re up for it, check out the recipe for these Mini Lemon Bundt Cakes for the icing portion. Go ahead and experiment to your heart’s content!
More Amazing Shortbread Cookie Recipes
- Chocolate Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookies
- Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Almond Shortbread Cookies
- Valentine’s Day Stained Glass Shortbread Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookies
- Classic Shortbread Cookies
Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies Recipe
📖 Recipe card
Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 ounce unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- Zest of 2 lemons
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon poppy seed
- ¼ scant teaspoon kosher salt
- Extra sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Let butter soften at room temperature out on the counter, but not melted.
- Measure out flour, poppy seed and salt into a medium mixing bowl, mix well to distribute thoroughly.
- Add sugar and lemon zest to the stand mixer bowl, rub together until fragrant and sugar turn a light yellow.
- Add soften butter and vanilla extract to the sugar mixture and beat with the paddle attachment until combined.
- Reduce mixer speed to low, and slowly add the flour mixture. Continue to mix on low speed until dough comes together. It should pull away from the side of the mixing bowl.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board or counter top, and shape into a disk.
- Wrap well with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Roll dough to about ¼” thick and cut out cookies with a 2” round or fluted cookie cutter. Re-roll the scrap dough and cut out more cookies until finished.
- Place the cookies in a container in layers with parchment paper in between and freeze for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F while the cookies are resting in the freezer.
- When the oven is ready, place cookies on a parchment line baking sheet an inch or two apart, sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of cookies generously and bake for 18 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
These are so lovely. I’m addicted to anything with lemon and also a big fan of shortbread so I definitely need to try these.
Lemon is so great all year round!