Back again to entice you with another delicious shortbread cookie recipe! This lemon shortbread is a great summer treat and has little bits of white chocolate and lemon curd to take this cookie to the next level!
I've made lemon curd before when I made a lemon lavender cake last year and it turned out wonderfully! Before I had tried to make it, I thought lemon curd was something you only find in the most austere of patiseries and that it would be a huge undertaking. I was totally wrong! In about 20 minutes, you too can have lemon curd that you can put in an old cleaned out mason jar and keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. It's a splendid addition to biscuits, toast, waffles, and even ice cream!
Finally, if you don't have a hand held zester, I promise it will be the best kitchen investment you've had all month - and by investment, I mean about $10. It's one of my favorite kitchen tools and I use it nearly every day for citrus, garlic, cheese, and even coconut!
Servings: 12-18 cookies
Prep Time: 45 min
Total Time: 1 hr 10 min
INGREDIENTS:
The Lemon Curd
3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
Pinch of salt
The Cookie
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
Zest of one medium-sized lemon
2 cups flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup white chocolate, chopped
DIRECTIONS:
For The Lemon Curd...
Zest the lemons and mix with the sugar. Put the lemon zest/sugar mixture in a food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds to make sure the zest is well incorporated.
In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar/lemon zest mixture. Reduce mixer speed to low, add the eggs, one at a time, the the juice of your three lemons and salt. Mix for another minute.
Pour mixture in a medium size saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes). Make sure you are stirring constantly. Do not allow to boil. Remove from heat and allow the curd to cool for at least 20 minutes.
If desired, pass the curd through a siev and discard any bits left behind. Place in an airtight container and transfer to the refrigerator.
For the Cookie...
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest until all combined.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour.
Fold in the chopped white chocolate pieces.
Lay out an 18 inch long piece of plastic wrap on your counter. Scoop out the dough onto the plastic wrap, shape it into a log and wrap the plastic around the log. Tighten the ends until the log is tight and all air pockets are gone. You want to make sure the log is tight, firm, and dense because if it isn't, it will crumble when you go to cut it later.
Put the plastic wrapped dough into the fridge to firm up for 4 hours or overnight. You can also keep this dough in the refrigerator up to 4 days before baking.
When the dough is ready, remove from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Unwrap the log of dough and on a cutting board, cut the log into 1/4 inch slices. Place the slices 1 inch apart on a baking sheet prepared with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper.
Bake for 12 minutes. The edges should just barely start turning golden when you remove them from the oven. When you remove them from the oven, carefully and gently press down on each cookie with the bottom of a water glass to make a small circular indentation. This is where the curd will go! Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, spread a teaspoon of the lemon curd on top of each cookie. If desired, melt some white chocolate and pipe a lemon slice design over the lemon curd. Allow to dry for about a half hour before stacking and storing!
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Trying these today 😘