Name: Lemon Biscuits (Easy Shortbread Biscuits)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 Lemon (For Juice And Zest); 330 g Plain Flour; 220 g Butter; 110 g Caster Sugar

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How To Make Easy Lemon Shortbread Biscuits

Melt in the mouth lemon biscuits that’s buttery, fragrant and so delicious. This recipe is so easy to make, and you only need 4 ingredients!

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5 from 2 votes

You know what they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemon shortbread biscuits… They’re buttery, crumbly and totally irresistible!

This recipe is packed full of lemon flavour, there’s both lemon zest and lemon juice added to the shortbread dough, which create biscuits that taste undeniably good.

You can’t get a better lemon flavour explosion than this! Plus, it’s made with four very basic ingredients making this recipe so simple and easy to put together.

lemon shortbread with grated lemon zest and lemon juice

Lemon Shortbread Biscuits

Lemon biscuits are a delicious flavoursome shortbread made in a very similar way to these Mary Berry fork biscuits or these classic buttery shortbread biscuits.

The biggest difference is the use of lemon and plain flour in this recipe, instead of using self-raising flour. Using plain flour creates lemon shortbread biscuits that are slightly crunchy, soft and melt in the mouth.

Watch How To Make It

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

They’re so easy even kids can make them; it’s perfect for all baking abilities.
You only need 4 basic ingredients.
These lemon shortbread biscuits make great gifts.
The perfect recipe for using spare lemons.
You can prepare the dough the night before, place it in the fridge and bake the next day.
Make it vegan with just one swap and these lemon biscuits naturally have no egg in it.

That’s just to name a few! What I love about these lemon biscuits is the taste! It’s both buttery and lemony and it’s not overly sweet.

Recipe Ingredients

Below are the few ingredients needed to make lemon shortbread biscuits, there is no egg included in this recipe.

Plain Flour: Perfect for a crumbly and tender texture; avoid using self-raising flour.
Butter: Salted or unsalted butter is fine to use; this is up to your preference. If you want to make this recipe vegan, then you can use margarine.
Caster Sugar: Caster sugar is very fine so combines with butter easily. The texture is perfect for making shortbread biscuits.
Lemon: Both lemon zest and lemon juice are added to this recipe for extra flavour. You’ll use the whole lemon without waste! I used a medium-sized unwaxed lemon.

How To Make Easy Lemon Biscuits

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to make easy English lemon biscuits. Full recipe instructions and are on the recipe card at the bottom.

Step One:

Butter, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice in food processor

Creamed butter, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C Fan, gas mark 4) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

With a grater, zest one lemon and harvest the zested peel into a small bowl. Then cut the lemon in half and juice each piece with a juicer or squeeze by hand.

Cream butter, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice together until light and fluffy. You can do this with a food processor, electric whisk or by hand with a wooden spoon.

If you’re mixing the ingredients together by hand, the mixture might look curdled but don’t worry, it will come together with the addition of flour (in the next step).

Step Two:

Add plain flour to the mixing bowl and mix together until a dough has formed. Use your hands to gather the dough together to form a ball.

Step Three:

Cutting out circles with fluted cookie cutter

Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough on top of it.

With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out until it has a 1cm (half an inch) thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut-out circles. I used a 6cm fluted cookie cutter.

Tip: The dough shouldn’t be sticky, but if it is, add more flour or chill the dough in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Step Four:

Place the cut-out dough onto a lined baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until baked through.

Leave the biscuits to cool down before moving them, otherwise they will break and crumble. The biscuits will harden as they cool.

How To Store Or Freeze

The best way to store these biscuits is to place them in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to a week. You can also freeze the biscuits or dough if you want to keep them for longer.

If you don’t feel like eating the baked lemon shortbread at once, you can wrap the biscuits in cling film and place in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months, leave the biscuits to defrost when you’re ready to eat it.

You can also freeze the dough for later use. Either freeze a ball of dough or you can slice the dough into bite-sized biscuit shapes and freeze in an airtight container.

Lemon Shortbread Biscuits – Easy Variations

There are so many changes you can make to this recipe, below I’ve listed a few ideas:

If you don’t have lemons, you can experiment and use lime, they’re more bitter in comparison to lemons. Oranges make a great swap too! In the same way you would use lemons, you’ll add both the peel and juice to make the dough.

If you have any lemon juice left over, you can make a lemon drizzle icing by mixing icing sugar and lemon juice together. Drizzle this over the lemon biscuits and leave the icing to harden. This will make an eye-catching easy design.

You can change the texture by using self-raising flour instead of plain flour, the texture will be softer and more cake-like.

Equipment Needed For This Recipe

You’ll need a few of the baking basics below to make these cookies:

Should Shortbread Be Crunchy Or Soft?

Classic English shortbread has a signature crumbly texture. A mixture of butter and sugar coats the flour resulting in a melt in the mouth and buttery texture.

In comparison to other biscuit recipes, shortbread biscuits have less sugar and there are no eggs in the ingredients. This creates a texture that is slightly crisp yet tender.

What Can You Do With A Bunch Of Lemons?

Apart from making more lemon biscuits, below are even more delicious recipes you can make with a bunch of lemons:

Lemon Flapjacks
Honey Chilli Chicken
Lemon Ice Cream
Lemon Smoothie
Lemon Mousse

My Top Tips

When freshly out of the oven these biscuits are super fragile, if you try to lift it up it will break apart. Let the biscuits cool down for at least 15 minutes before transferring to a plate or your mouth!

If you’re baking these biscuits from frozen add 3 to 5 minutes to the baking time, so that they cook throughout perfectly.

You’ll want to work quickly with the dough when you’re bringing it together with your hands and when you’re rolling it out. Our hands naturally have warmth to them which can soften the butter and make the dough sticky.

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