A classic British Biscuit just had a lemony revamp! Buttery and so delicate that they melt in your mouth, these Jammy Dodgers are made with lemon curd and are great with your mid-morning coffee and your afternoon tea! Melt-in-the-mouth Lemon Curd Biscuits might just become your favourite sweet treat!
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Reasons To Love Lemon Curd Cookies
- Lemon lovers will truly appreciate the lemon-flavoured shortbread as well as the tangy lemon curd filling!
- A perfect way to use up 1 or a bunch of egg yolks. You can use 1 egg yolk for the buttery lemon shortbread cookies and a whole bunch to make your own lemon curd.
- They stay buttery and melt-in-the-mouth for days if stored correctly, so you can make them way in advance!
- If you love lemon curd thumbprint cookies but are looking for something slightly fancier, these Lemon Curd Biscuits are the way to go!
Cold Weather is Perfect For Making Lemon Curd Biscuits
There are two types of biscuits that get my heart racing: Caramel Digestives and these Lemon Jammy Dodgers. The latter, I love making at home, but only when the temperatures drop. Why? Well, to achieve these extremely delicate melt-in-the-mouth lemon cookies, the sweet shortcrust pastry I make for these is quite frail and not easy to manage when the temperature is higher than 18°C.
So I wait until it’s cold outside, turn the heating off in the kitchen, and get to work!
Equipment Needed
- Kitchen Scale.
- Lemon Zester.
- Lemon Juicer. We highly recommend a stainless steel one.
- Stainless Steel Rolling Pin.
- Large Bowl, Medium Bowl and a Small Bowl.
- Electric Mixer, optional.
- Cookie Sheets or large baking trays.
Ingredients and Substitutes
Simple ingredients, all the flavour!
- butter: we use both salted butter (for the lemony cookies) and unsalted butter for the buttercream. Salted butter should be fridge-cold, whilst unsalted butter should be softened.
- plain flour: also known as all purpose flour.
- icing sugar: also known as confectioners sugar or powdered sugar. Whilst shortbread can be made with caster sugar, for best results and melt-in-the-mouth texture we highly recommend icing sugar.
- lemon: we will use both lemon zest and juice for maximum lemon flavour, so choose fresh juicy unwaxed lemons if you can. You may substitute the lemons with lime to make Lime Biscuits.
- egg yolk: large in the UK, extra large in the US.
- lemon curd: shop bought or homemade. Our favourite lemon curd recipe is by The Preppy Kitchen. It’s delicious!
Method
There are three different elements to these Lemon Curd Cookies: sweet shortcrust pasty, buttercream and tart lemon curd filling.
Make Pâté Sucrée
To start, weigh out plain flour and butter. I use salted butter for almost anything, but if you have unsalted in your fridge, just add a pinch of salt. Use fridge-cold butter for these Lemon Jammy Dodgers. Cold butter doesn’t get blended into the flour fully, therefore contributing to a crispier flakier texture. Cube your butter and add to flour. Rub between your fingertips to make a mixture resembling fine crumbs.
Mix in icing sugar and finely chopped lemon zest. Icing sugar makes these Lemon Jammy Dodgers what they are – they are so delicate they dissolve in your mouth as soon as they touch your tongue. You can, of course, make shortbread with caster sugar but it will have a sandier texture.
Add a large egg yolk and a couple of tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and bring everything together in a ball. Don’t knead, and try to work quickly until everything is just combined and holds together. Divide into two, flatten slightly and, wrapped in clingfilm (plastic wrap), pop in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Whilst the pastry chills, line two large baking sheets with baking parchment.
Roll Out the Pastry & Cut the Biscuits
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 160°C Fan. Take the pastry out of the fridge onto a floured surface. Flour your rolling pin and roll out thinly to about 2-3mm thickness. I have to admit, I always add quite a bit of flour whilst rolling. For me, it’s the choice between slightly more flour or the pastry sticking to the surface and the rolling pin. Then having to roll it again and again, therefore, overworking it. I choose to flour! But of course, the official advice is DON’T ADD TOO MUCH flour. A cold kitchen, cold surfaces, and cold hands really help with this!
I use 6cm round cutters to stamp out 60 round discs. Then use a small round cookie cutter (1.5-2cm) to stamp out circles in the middle of 30 of the biscuits for the tops. I use a piping nozzle for this.
Bake
Place all the buttery shortbread cookies on a baking parchment paper – lined baking sheet. Pop them into the preheated oven and bake for 12-14 minutes, switching shelves and rotating baking sheets midway through.
Make The Buttercream
For the filling, cream together room temperature unsalted butter and icing sugar, until really light and fluffy. If you wish you could add some vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. You may choose to do this with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk. Transfer into a piping bag, ready for when the biscuits are ready to be filled. Get your lemon curd ready in a separate piping bag. If you only have one, you can just wash it after piping the buttercream.
Fill The Lemon Curd Biscuits
When the buttery cookies are ready, take them out of the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes. From my experience, they do not need to be transferred onto a cooling rack.
Pipe a circle of buttercream towards the outer edge of the 30 round discs. Pipe a small dollop of lemon curd in the center of each cookie. Sandwich the filling with the top ‘ring-shaped’ biscuit. Dust with icing sugar. Your Lemon Jammy Dodgers are ready to be served!
How To Store Lemon Jammy Dodgers?
If you wish to stack them for storage, just press any lemon curd poking up in the centre of the biscuit with the back of a teaspoon. Store in an airtight container in a dark cool place for up to 4 days.
Other Lemon Desserts
If you enjoy the lemon flavor in your desserts, why not try a few more of our zingy lemony recipes below:
- Lemon Ricotta Pie (Italian Easter Pie)
- Easy Sourdough Lemon Muffins
- ‘African Heat’ Spicy Lemonade
- 5-Ingredient Lemon Slice With Condensed Milk
Other Biscuit and Cookie Recipes
Looking for more biscuit and cookie ideas? We have you covered:
- Light Almond Biscuits
- Refined Sugar-Free Oat Cookies with Cranberries and Pistachios
- Sourdough Biscotti with Hazelnuts & Cocoa
Recipe Card
Melt-in-the-Mouth Lemon Curd Biscuits
Equipment
- 6 cm cookie cutter
- Piping Bag with a Nozzle
Ingredients
For Lemon Shortbread:
- 170 g salted butter fridge-cold
- 250 g plain flour
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1 lemon zest and 2 tablespoon juice
- 1 large egg yolk
For the Filling:
- 80 g butter room temperature
- 80 g icing sugar
- 80 g lemon curd room temperature
Instructions
- Rub butter into plain flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Mix in icing sugar and lemon zest.
- Add an egg yolk and 2 tbs of lemon juice, and bring everything into a ball, making sure not to overwork the pastry.
- Divide into two equal pieces. Flatten them slightly (so it's easier to roll later) and wrap in clingfilm. Pop in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Whilst the pastry is chilling, line two large baking sheets with baking parchment.
- To make the filling, cream butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy and set aside for later.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C Fan. After 30 minutes of chilling, take the pastry out of the fridge onto a floured surface. Flour your rolling pin and roll both pieces out to 2 mm thickness.
- Stamp out approx. 60 round discs (we used a 6cm cutter). Then use a small cutter (or a piping nozzle) to stamp out the middles of 30 of the discs for the tops.
- Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes switching the shelves and rotating baking sheets midway through. Take them out of the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
- Pipe a circle of buttercream towards the outer edge of the 30 round discs, leaving the centre empty for the lemon curd. Then pipe a blob of lemon curd in the middle of each of the 30 biscuits and sandwich with the ring-shaped top biscuit.
- Dust the Lemon Jammy Dodgers with some more icing sugar before serving.
Nutrition
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