Lemon poppy seed shortbread cookies, sandwiched together with sweet lemon buttercream filling and tangy lemon curd. The lemon shortbread cookies are buttery and slightly crisp, which contrasts nicely with the fluffy buttercream. You’ll love these pretty lemon sandwich cookies!
You might also love these baked lemon sugar cake donuts, soft lemon cookies with white chocolate and macadamia nuts, and lavender lemon cake.
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Why You’ll Love These Cookies
So Much Lemon Flavor. With lemon zest and extract in the cookies and buttercream, and the tart lemon curd filling, there’s no shortage of lemon flavor in these pretty lemon poppy seed shortbread cookies.
Simple to Make. Although these cookies look fancy with the fluted cookie edges and piped buttercream, they’re really quite simple to make and assemble. But since they look so elegant, they’re perfect to serve for brunch, a bridal shower or even a wedding.
No Spread Recipe. This is a no spread lemon cookie recipe, so they will perfectly maintain any shape you cut the cookies.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
Cookies
- Flour. All-purpose flour gives the cookies structure and strength.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the cookies, while the fine texture gives them a soft, melt in your mouth texture.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Butter. Adds moisture, rich buttery flavor, and a crisp but tender texture.
- Lemon Paste or Extract. For an extra punch of lemon flavor.
- Lemon Zest. There’s nothing like the flavor of fresh lemon zest in lemony baked goods.
- Milk. Moistens the dough to bind it together.
- Poppy Seeds. Adds a nutty flavor and pretty speckled appearance.
Filling
- Butter. Gives a rich, buttery flavor to the frosting.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the frosting.
- Meringue Powder. Adds stability.
- Lemon Paste or Extract. Flavor
- Lemon Curd. For an extra punch of lemon flavor. You can use either store bought lemon curd or homemade lemon curd.
Instructions
Cookies
- In your food processor (or using a hand held pastry cutter), pulse the flour, powdered sugar, poppy seeds and salt until combined.
- With the processor running, add the lemon zest and drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly, or just cut it all in with your pastry cutter.
- Add the lemon paste/extract milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness of just between 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick. Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 1-2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Using a 2 – 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you’ll get about 28 cookies from this recipe (for 14 sandwich cookies). Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don’t spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 10 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges. If you (very carefully) turn a cookie over with a spatula, the bottom should have light golden browning, with no appearance of raw or wet dough.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Let your cookies cool completely before frosting and decorating. You can bake the cookies in advance, store in an airtight container, and freeze for 3-6 months until you’re ready to frost them.
Filling
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter, powdered sugar, meringue powder and lemon paste/extract for several minutes until light and fluffy.
- Fit a piping bag with tip 1M, and fill with the buttercream.
- Fit another piping bag with a small round tip (or just snip off the corner of the bag) and fill with the lemon curd.
- Pair up the cookies, and turn half the cookies over. Pipe a ring of buttercream onto the bottoms of half the cookies, then pipe the lemon curd into the center of each. Top with the other half of the cookies.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I store the leftover cookies?
Store your leftover lemon poppy seed shortbread cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months. Let warm up to room temperature before serving.
Are lemon shortbread cookies soft or crunchy?
They’re somewhere in between soft and crunchy, with a buttery, crumbly texture.
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Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookie Sandwiches
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- Rolling Pin, Bench Scraper and Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ⅔ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp fresh lemon zest
- ⅔ cup (10 1/2 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 tsp lemon paste or lemon extract
- 2 ½ tbsp cold whole milk
Filling
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp meringue powder, optional
- 1 tsp lemon paste or lemon extract
- ½ cup lemon curd
Instructions
Cookies
- In your food processor (or using a hand held pastry cutter), pulse the flour, powdered sugar, poppy seeds and salt until combined.With the processor running, add the lemon zest and drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly, or just cut it all in with your pastry cutter.Add the lemon paste/extract milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness of just between 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 1-2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Using a 2 – 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you'll get about 28 cookies from this recipe (for 14 sandwich cookies).Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don't spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350F.Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 10 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges. If you (very carefully) turn a cookie over with a spatula, the bottom should have light golden browning, with no appearance of raw or wet dough.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Let your cookies cool completely before frosting and decorating. You can bake the cookies in advance, store in an airtight container, and freeze for 3-6 months until you're ready to frost them.
Filling
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter, powdered sugar, meringue powder and lemon paste/extract for several minutes until light and fluffy.
- Fit a piping bag with tip 1M, and fill with the buttercream.Fit another piping bag with a small round tip (or just snip off the corner of the bag) and fill with the lemon curd.
- Pair up the cookies, and turn half the cookies over. Pipe a ring of buttercream onto the bottoms of half the cookies, then pipe the lemon curd into the center of each. Top with the other half of the cookies.
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