Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

These lemon thumbprint cookies are perfect with a cup of tea. The cookie tastes similar to a shortbread cookie and the drop of lemon curd in the middle does well to brighten the flavor and texture. I found this recipe among my stash of magazine pages torn out of various magazines over the years. This particular cookie comes from Redbook Magazine and judging from the online recipe, it must have been part of a Christmas cookie article. Don’t worry, these lemon drop cookies are good any time of the year!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 TB grated lemon zest
1 TB fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup lemon curd (homemade or store-bought)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets with a parchment lining.
2. Beat butter and sugar, then add the yolks, zest, juice and salt.
3. Slow the mixer down and add the flour until just blended.  Use your hands to help the dough come together in a ball. I put the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before the next step.
4. I used a melon-baller to make uniform balls of dough about 1 inch across. Flatten the balls slightly.  Dip your finger in flour then make a hole in the middle of the cookie. Don’t skip the flour—it makes a big difference in the ease of making these holes.

5. Bake for 18-20 minutes then remove cookies from oven and fill the holes with lemon curd. Put the cookies back into the oven to bake for 2 additional minutes.


6. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar. I found they were prettier if I kept the sugar off of the lemon curd and did so by covering the middle of the cookie with a small spoon while I dusted the confectioners’ sugar over top.