These easy lemon biscuits are beautifully buttery and just perfect for afternoon tea with a pot of Earl Grey!
Only a handful of ingredients are needed and just fifteen minutes in the oven (plus a little chilling time in the fridge) before you can tuck into these tasty bitesize lemon biscuits.
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These easy lemon cookies are a great bake to make with kids. My lot love creaming the butter and sugar together (and sneakily licking the spoon when I'm not looking!).
They are perfectly sweet bitesize biscuits that the whole family will love!
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🥘 Ingredients
- Lemons (zest and juice)
- Butter
- Caster Sugar
- Egg
- Plain Flour
- Baking Powder
🔪 Instructions
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
One: Preheat the oven to 190°c (170 fan/ 375F/ Gas 5) and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Two: Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Three: Beat in the egg, lemon zest and lemon juice.
Four: Stir in the flour and baking powder and mix to form a dough. If the mixture is a little dry add a tablespoon of water and mix and continue to do this until a smooth dough forms.
Top Tip: Bring the dough together with your hands to help form a smooth dough ball.
Five: Cover the bowl with clingfilm and chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Six: Take tablespoons of the dough and roll into balls. Place on the baking sheet (you should get about 20 cookies). Flatten down slightly with the back of a spoon.
Seven: Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and flatten down again with the back of a spoon. These biscuits do not spread and are meant to be thick, round and bitesize.
Eight: Once cool sift over the icing sugar and serve!
🍴 Serving suggestions
These lemon biscuits are lovely as part of an afternoon tea, or just as a bitesize sweet pick-me-up when your energy levels are flagging!
📖 Variations
- Use lime or orange instead of lemon.
- Make a lemon drizzle icing by mixing icing sugar with lemon juice.
- Dip half of each lemon biscuit in melted chocolate and allow to set on a baking tray.
- Add a handful of chopped nuts to the dough for added crunch and texture. Pecan or hazelnuts would both work well.
🥡 Storage
The dough for these lemon butter biscuits can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until ready to bake (the dough can be made up to 48 hours ahead).
Once baked the biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
The biscuits can also be frozen for up to 3 months in a freezer safe container or freezer bag.
😋Related recipes
More delicious lemon recipes to try!
- Lemon Blueberry Polenta Cake
- Lemon Curd Tartlets
- Lemon Curd Loaf Cake
- Blackberry and Lemon Muffins
- Lemon Drizzle Loaf
🍽️ More family-friendly recipes
Easy bakes from the Effortless Foodie kitchen!
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Recipe
Easy Lemon Biscuits
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Equipment
- Wooden Spoon
- Baking Paper
Ingredients
- 80 g Butter softened
- 100 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 2 Lemons zest from both and juice from one
- 240 g Plain Flour
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
To decorate
- 25 g Icing Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°c (170 fan/ 375F/ Gas 5) and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg, lemon zest (from 2 lemons) and the lemon juice from just 1 of the lemons.
- Stir in the flour and baking powder and mix to form a dough. If the mixture is a little dry add more lemon juice (from the second lemon) and mix and continue to do this until a smooth dough forms. Use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.
- Cover the bowl with clingfilm and chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Take tablespoons of the dough and roll into balls. Place on the baking sheet (you should get about 20 cookies). Flatten down slightly with the back of a spoon.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and flatten down again with the back of a spoon. These biscuits do not spread and are meant to be thick, round and bitesize.
- Once cool sift over the icing sugar and serve!
Notes
- Use lime or orange instead of lemon.
- Make a lemon drizzle icing by mixing icing sugar with lemon juice.
- Dip half of each lemon biscuit in melted chocolate and allow to set on a baking tray.
- Add a handful of chopped nuts to the dough for added crunch and texture. Pecan or hazelnuts would both work well.
Danielle Wolter says
I am a sucker for lemon flavored anything. These were just incredible and had the perfect amount of lemony flavor!
Ali says
So easy! I added coconut... About half a cup?... And rolled in baking paper to chill, then sliced into neat little rounds. Cooked evenly... A generous layer of icing sugar... YUM! THANK YOU!!
Claudia Lamascolo says
I can just imagine how delicious these biscuits are with lemon we love that fresh citrus test on the list of must trys!!
Allyssa says
Thank you so much for this lemon biscuit! It's so easy and quick to do. I love it!
D Lamb says
Easy to make lemon biscuits and tasty
Laura says
These are so good and I just love how light they turn out. They're perfect as an accompaniment for tea.
Natalie says
Simple yet so delicious. Perfect cookies to welcome Spring. I will definitely make this for my family. Thanks for idea!
Stear says
Soooo easy to make, lovely flavour. A lovely cross between a biscuit and a bun.
Mike says
These are great, recipe is spot on, thanks.
P.Barnes says
Lovely light tasty buns
Anne says
Recipe calls for 2 lemons but only 1 used in method ?????
Beth Sachs says
Hi Anne
You need the zest of 2 lemons but the juice of only 1. I've re-written the method to make it a little clearer.
Yasmin says
These are great. I made them today and they turned out perfect. My kids loved them also.
Valerie says
These are simple and delicious 😋. I put lemon icing on the top.
betty says
So does everyone just use zest full of wax because it is absolutely impossible to get unwaxed lemons these days? Have searched every supermarket, every organic shop and small grocers, none without wax.
Suzana says
I helped my 6 years old make this today and we all loved it!
We used the warm juice of the second lemon with a bit of honey to drizzle over the cookies when still hot and it added a delicious extra sweet and zing! Lovely 🙂
Rae says
Even though I messed up the ingredients,(realising my one lemon yielded a lot of juice and had to add extra flour,) the result was a flatter biscuit that still tasted great!
Tracy W says
Made to bring to a morning tea. Had to make second batch per my family's demands.