Name: Lemon Shortbread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 16 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 225 g cold butter, cubed; 100 g caster sugar; 2 lemons, zested; ¼ tsp salt; 250 g plain flour; 75 g cornflour; 100 g icing sugar; 2 tbsp lemon juice

Lemon Shortbread

Buttery shortbread flavoured with lemon zest and a little lemon juice, cut into fingers and baked for 20 minutes at 160C.

35 min total Serves 16 servings Easy

Why This Is Worth Making

Why does lemon shortbread taste so much brighter than plain? Because the fat in the butter carries the lemon oil to every part of the biscuit, so the flavour is spread evenly through the crumb rather than concentrated in a glaze. A thin layer of icing helps, but the zest in the dough does most of the work.

Use the zest of two lemons for a batch of sixteen. Rub it into the sugar with your fingertips before mixing with the butter, which scents the whole dough. The juice is kept for the glaze, because water and shortbread do not mix: moisture develops gluten and makes the biscuits tough and hard rather than short and sandy.

Rub the butter into the flour, do not beat it. Shortbread is meant to be fine and crumbly, and the less the dough is worked the better. Cornflour or rice flour in place of some plain flour reduces the gluten still further. Press the dough into the tin and prick it all over.

Bake at 160°C / 320°F until pale gold at the edges, but pale on top. Cut into fingers while it is warm, since shortbread shatters when cold. A thin lemon glaze brushed over the cooled fingers sets as a crisp, tart coating, but a dusting of caster sugar is enough.

Build the Meal Around Lemon Shortbread

Hot tea
Coffee
Fresh berries
Lemon curd

Making Lemon Shortbread, Step by Step

Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.

Heat the oven to 160°C / 320°F. Line a 20 cm square tin.
Rub the lemon zest into the caster sugar. Rub with the butter and salt, then work in the flour and cornflour to form a dough.
Press into the tin and prick all over with a fork.
Bake for 20 minutes until pale gold at the edges. Cut into 16 fingers while warm and cool in the tin.
Whisk the icing sugar and lemon juice and brush a thin layer over the cooled fingers.

A Few Notes

Rub the zest into the sugar.

Do not overwork the dough.

Cut the fingers while still warm.

Leftovers

Keeps in an airtight tin for 2 weeks.

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

236Calories

2gProtein

30gCarbs

12gFat

1gFibre

13gSugar

40mgSodium

Vegetarian

Lemon Shortbread

Build the Meal Around Lemon Shortbread

Making Lemon Shortbread, Step by Step

A Few Notes

Leftovers

The Numbers per Serving

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

Build the Meal Around Lemon Shortbread

Making Lemon Shortbread, Step by Step

A Few Notes

Leftovers

The Numbers per Serving

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

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