Classic & Simple Lemon Meltaways
This is a super simple shortbread recipe made with just seven ingredients (including the icing!). Don’t let its simplicity fool you though; these lemon meltaway cookies are bursting with flavor and taste so good, especially considering how few ingredients are needed. Plus, there’s no chilling required!
Fresh lemons are a must here. The lemon flavor is bright and perfectly balanced; it’s present in the cookie but really pops in the lemon icing (which is just two ingredients!).
This recipe is very similar to my whipped shortbread cookies, which is another simple, yet so flavorful cookie recipe (and requires no chilling as well). So many of you loved that recipe, so I have a feeling you will love this one too 💛
What You Need
We’ll use just seven ingredients for these lemon meltaway cookies (for both the cookies and the icing!).
- Flour. As with all of my recipes, it is very important to measure your flour properly. It can be very easy to over-measure your flour, which can cause your cookie dough to be dry and crumbly.
- Butter. When making recipes with so few ingredients, it’s helpful to use good quality ingredients. While not mandatory, a pricier, European butter works especially well with this recipe to elevate the flavor even further. If you only have salted butter available to you, you can use that and skip the salt (note that this doesn’t work for all recipes; read my post on salted vs. unsalted butter to learn more).
- Lemons. Fresh lemons are essential here! We’ll be using both the zest and the juice from our lemons. Make sure to zest your lemons before juicing them; I typically need two lemons here, but this will vary depending on the exact size of yours.
- Sugar. We’ll use regular granulated sugar in the cookies themselves and powdered sugar in the lemon icing.
- Cornstarch. This is key to the melt-in-your-mouth texture that is characteristic to lemon meltaway cookies (and also in my snowball cookies)!
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Lemon Meltaway Cookies
Make the Cookie Dough
- Cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest together with an electric mixer.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients until completely combined.
- Scoop and roll into balls between your palms. I keep these cookies small, bite or two-bite sized. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake.
- Gently flatten the cookies with the bottom of a measuring cup or glass immediately after baking. This will give you a flat surface for adding the icing, and slightly compressing the cookie like this makes for a super soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Lemon Icing
- Whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Check for the proper consistency: the icing should ribbon off the whisk and hold its shape in the bowl for several seconds before dissolving.
- Spread the icing over the cooled cookies and garnish with lemon zest. Once the glaze has set, enjoy!
