A deliciously tart shortbread-like cookie that packs a punch of fresh lemon flavor. Perfectly buttery, light and crispy, these lemon poppyseed cookies are perfect with a tall glass of milk or a cup of tea any time of day.
Every January I get a hankering for all things lemon. Cakes, cookies, tarts, muffins….you name it, I crave it. It helps that my Meyer lemon trees are bursting with bright and juicy lemons. It’s the perfect time of year to bake up lots of goodies loaded with fresh off the tree citrus flavor. Last year’s favorite was this Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake that I still cannot get enough of. Oh, and this Meyer Lemon Bar Tart was a real winner and understandably so.
I have a feeling these lemon poppyseed cookies will be a fast favorite too. I stumbled across this recipe from Oh Honey Bakes while looking for some fresh ideas to use up all of my backyard fruit this winter. They are like the world’s perfect cookie. Perfectly crispy on the outside, deliciously tender on the inside, and chock full of fresh lemon flavor. One bite and you’ll wonder where these citrus spiked cookies have been all of your life.
I love me some lemon but my husband is an even bigger fan of anything with the words lemon and dessert in the same sentence. Needless to say he was the first to grab one of these lemon poppyseed cookies warm from the oven and immediately declared that they were sooooo good and that I had better hide the rest of the batch from him.
Being married to a baking blogger, he’s tasted a few cookies in his time so I’m thinking his rave review {and the fact that he immediately proceeded to eat two more cookies} totally counts.
WHY ARE LEMON POPPYSEED COOKIES SO DELICIOUS?
I don’t know about you, but the spot on combo of lemon and poppyseeds just makes me happy. If you could bottle up sunshine and stuff it into a cookie, this would be it! These cookies are easy to make with just a handful of basic ingredients and they’re just as delicious the next day as they are fresh from the oven. Thin and crispy, not too sweet, and perfectly lemony, these poppyseed studded cookies will leave you craving one after another until you’ve simply lost count.
Baking a batch of lemon poppyseed cookies requires no fancy equipment and you can make them in any size you like. I made mine with a 3-inch cookie cutter but you can make them smaller or larger if you prefer. If you don’t have a cookie cutter or a biscuit cutter, you can use a glass or the top a jar. These cookies stay fresh for days but they also freeze beautifully so they make a delicious addition to your freezer stash.
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST LEMON POPPYSEED COOKIES
Use room temperature butter. It is important to be sure your butter is at room temperature otherwise it will not combine properly with the sugar into a light and fluffy mixture. For best results, rest your butter on the countertop for an hour or two before baking. Or better yet, take the butter out of the fridge the night before you plan to bake.
Use Meyer lemons for the best flavor. Meyer lemons impart the best flavor in baked goods so it’s worth the extra trip to the store {or your neighbors lemon tree} wink, wink. Any lemon will do for this recipe but Meyer lemons are a bit sweeter than regular lemons. They have more sugar and less acid so they deliver a softer flavor to cookies, cakes and tarts and breads.
Chill the dough. The dough is a bit on the sticky side so it must be chilled completely before rolling it out. To chill the dough, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight for best results. Once you have rolled out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper, cut the circles and then freeze the shapes on cookie sheets for 15 minutes before baking. Don’t be tempted to skip this step. Keeping the dough chilled will help prevent the cookies from spreading in the oven and all of our cookies will bake evenly and be uniform in size.
Enjoy these lemon poppyseed cookies with a tall glass of milk or pair them with a warm cup of tea on a chilly winter day. They’re a little bit of sunshine in cookie form and I’m fairly certain they come with a happiness guarantee.
Happy baking!
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅔ cup plus 2 TBSP granulated sugar
- 1 egg, separated
- 2 TBSP Meyer lemon zest (from approx 2 Meyer lemons)
- ¼ cup lemon juice (from one large Meyer lemon)
- 1 TBSP vanilla bean paste
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup poppyseeds
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup sanding sugar for sprinkling
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and poppyseeds until combined well. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light in color, about 3 minutes. Do not over mix.
- Add the egg yolk, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla bean paste, mixing on low speed until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 2 additions, mixing on low speed until just barely combined.
- Remove the dough from the mixer and flatten into two discs. Wrap each disc of dough tightly in clear plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
- Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place one disc of dough between two sheets of parchment paper and use a rolling pin to roll ½ inch thick.
- Use a 3 inch circular cookie or biscuit cutter to cut circles and use a metal spatula to transfer them to the prepared cookie sheets. Leave one inch between each cookie, they will not spread.
- Place cookies on cookie sheets in freeze for 15 minutes to chill.
- Meanwhile, continue rolling and cutting circles with remaining dough.
- Beat the egg white with a whisk until slightly foamy. Remove the cookie sheet from the freezer and use a pastry brush to cover the tops of cookies with the beaten egg white. Top each cookie with a sprinkle of sugar.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, until the edges fo the cookies begin to turn a golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Cookies freeze well. Wrap tightly and place in freezer for up to 2 months.
Original recipe from Tiffany Howard of Oh Honey Bakes.
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