Lemon Thyme Shortbread

This Lemon Thyme Shortbread is the super simple summer dessert you need! With just minutes to make, you will have a buttery cookie with a burst of lemon citrus and a hint of thyme for a little something extra!

In the heat of the summer, a bright and cheery lemon cookie is the only obvious solution! Even better, they take only minutes to make, so no slaving in a hot kitchen, plus these cookies only need 8 ingredients. Seriously, you have to make these!

8-Ingredient Lemon Shortbread Cookies

With only 8 ingredients, you won’t believe how rich and flavorful these lemon shortbread cookies can be! Using quality ingredients is the key, because there are so few, you want them to stand out.

• Unsalted butter. No shortbread cookie is complete without a ton of butter. Yes, we’re using 2 full sticks. So I recommend to use a great brand of butter here for a great flavor. And yes, you can definitely tell the difference!
• Granulated sugar & confectioners’ sugar. We will use the granulated sugar in the cookie dough, and a little confectioner’s sugar to make a quick glaze.
• All-purpose flour.
• Vanilla extract & salt. Helps to round out the flavor of the cookies so they have a little depth.
• Fresh lemons. We need both the zest and the juice of the lemons, so skip the pre-packaged bottled lemon juice,
• Fresh thyme. Thyme goes so beautifully with lemon. Just a little fresh thyme adds a subtle flavor but don’t worry, these won’t be a savory cookie.

How to Make Shortbread

Shortbread are one of my favorite cookies to make. So named because they are “short” in gluten strands, so they have a slightly crumbly texture that completely melts in the mouth, they are ridiculously simple and so irresistible with how buttery they are!

Shortbread itself has a pretty traditional ratio of 3:2:1 (3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, 1 part sugar). However, I have decreased the flour in my tried-and-true variation because I like a softer, more buttery cookie.

So, how do we need to make these simple, buttery shortbread cookies? Follow these few tricks below for a fantastic dessert.

Start with a good butter base. Whipping your butter and sugar with the lemon zest with release all the great, flavorful oils from the zest!

Zest properly. When zesting the lemon, use a microplane or fine cheese grater to grate off only the outermost layer of bright yellow skin. Leave the yellow layer behind because that is extremely bitter.

Add the flour slowly. Pour the flour in very slowly and only mix until the flour is incorporated and a dough is formed — but stop before it forms into a solid ball. This is just to make it easier to pat into the pan. You can sprinkle the crumbles in and pat into place instead of fighting a large block of dough!

Smooth before baking. Pat the dough into as even a layer as possible before baking. The dough will not change much in baking, so if you have an uneven pan going in, it will be uneven coming out! If you are finding the dough to be sticky on your hands, you can use a sheet of clingfilm or spray your hands with a little Pam, however I haven’t found that to be necessary unless I’m in a supremely warm kitchen.

To get a really smooth top, you can go the extra mile and use a bench scraper or bowl scraper to smooth over the top layer.

Wait to cut. These lemon shortbread cookies lift out easiest from the pan when they are cool (but not cold, resist the urge to place them in the fridge). Run a knife around the edge and gently lift them out using the parchment slings you have left in the pan! Warm cookies may break when lifting.