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Home » baking, desserts & puddings » lemon butter biscuits

lemon butter biscuits

12 May, 2019

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Lemon butter biscuits, delicious melt in the mouth biscuits fragrant with lemon. A simple bake, that’s ready in minutes, making them a perfect afternoon tea treat.

Lemon butter biscuits are one of my favourite quick and simple bakes. This easy biscuit recipe is so easy to follow and the biscuit bakes in no time, making it ideal for a mid afternoon treat, along with a cup of tea.

A tower of simple lemon butter cookies sat on top of a wire cooling rack, topped with powdered sugar and a snip of lemon thyme with a lemon and pale blue napkin to the back.

The fruit bowl in my home is never without this bright yellow citrus, be it for sweet or savoury cooking. I love citrus, but in particular lemon, which I cook with in both savoury and sweet dishes. It’s up there as one of my top 5 favourite things to cook and bake with.

A favourite dessert of mine is Lemon Posset which is super simple to make. I like this dessert as it is both sweet and tart. I’ve never had an overly sweet tooth, so lemon desserts feature regularly in my household (along with sour rhubarb when it’s in season).

Lemon butter cookies in a tower on a wire cooling rack and a dusting of icing sugar being sprinkled over the top, a pale blue napkin to the back with a lemon as well.

I like to pair lemon posset with something a little sweeter, to balance out the sourness, but not a biscuit that is too sweet. The posset doesn’t take too long to prepare so you want a biscuit that can be ready quickly too. These simple lemon butter biscuits are a perfectly light, crisp biscuit with a good hit of lemon zest. They work a treat with the posset.

Recipe steps:

Butter and sugar in a bowl and adding in lemon zest to prepare lemon butter biscuits.
Place the sugar, butter and lemon zest in a bowl and cream together
Butter and sugar mixed and ready to add flour to a stand mixer.
Add the flour and mix to form a dough
Lemon butter biscuit dough ready to roll and chill
Form the dough into an oblong roll, use the baking parchment to help as the dough will be a little sticky, then place in fridge for 1-2 hours to firm up
Lemon butter biscuit dough
Once chilled the dough will feel firm, remove from the fridge
lemon butter biscuits cut and ready for the oven on a lined baking tray.
Slice the dough, place on a lined baking sheet and bake

Different flavour combinations:

There is no complexity to this biscuit, using this easy butter biscuit recipe as a base, you can mix up the flavours to swap the flavours as you see fit.

The lemon can be easily substituted with other citrus flavours. Both orange or lime zest are a great alternative and would make a delicious biscuit.

However, don’t be limited by thinking you can only use citrus flavours. Replace the zest entirely with chocolate chips or a tablespoon of cocoa powder, for a chocolate butter biscuit.

Another great option is to add nuts, chopped hazelnuts or almond would be a great choice.

Whilst we like the biscuits baked simply you could also dip them in melted chocolate or sandwich two together with butter cream. Make the biscuits your own and get creative!

Can you prepare lemon butter biscuits ahead of time?

These biscuits are great to make up in advance. Prepare the dough, roll it into a log, wrap it in baking parchment and place it in the fridge overnight. When you are ready to bake, simply remove them from the fridge, cut and bake as per the recipe card.

Delicious and simple lemon butter cookies topped with icing sugar and a sprig of lemon thyme on a wire cooling rack, some lemons to the back and the icing sugar shaker to the side

Can you freeze lemon biscuits?

The dough also freezes really well so I very often make a double batch of dough. One to enjoy now, one to put away and enjoy at a later date.

Once you have made the dough, roll and shape into an oblong then pop into the fridge for an hour to set. Once it is set, you can easily cut the dough into 1cm slices.

Place the slices of dough in a single layer in a suitable lidded box, ready for freezing. If freezing multiple layers, place a sheet of baking parchment between each layer of lemon biscuit. This will stop them sticking together and will make baking far easier at a later date.

When ready to bake simply remove from the freezer and cook directly from frozen. Simply increase the cooking time by 2-4 minutes when cooking from frozen.

What can I do with leftover lemon juice?

This recipe requires the zest of 3 lemons. Once the zest has been removed from the lemons they can dry out. I hate to see anything go to waste, so instead juice the lemons and pour the lemon juice into an ice-cube tray and pop in the freezer. Once frozen, remove from the trays, pop into a bag, label and return to the freezer. One cube is roughly the juice of 1/2 a lemon. I use these frozen lemon cubes in cooking, for marinades, or in a cheeky G&T!

Pin the recipe:

Lemon butter biscuits, delicious melt in the mouth biscuits fragrant with lemon. A simple bake making them a perfect afternoon tea treat. #simple #easy #lemonbutter

Additional recipe suggestions:

We like to pair this biscuit with our Lemon Posset, a simple but refreshing dessert. One that’s ideal for warm Summer evenings.

For other simple biscuit bakes try some these recipes:

  • Orange Butter Biscuits
  • Ginger & Chilli Biscuits
  • Custard Creams
  • Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies
  • No-bake Mars Bar Slice
  • No-bake Chocolate Tiffin

These delicious biscuits are all simple to make, and a great place to start of you are baking with kids. If you enjoyed this bake have a look at our Ultimate Guide to Baking with Kids, full of great recipe suggestions, hints and tips for baking with children.

A tower of simple lemon butter cookies sat on top of a wire cooling rack, topped with powdered sugar and a snip of lemon thyme with a lemon to the back.

Lemon Butter Biscuits

Lemon butter biscuits, delicious melt in the mouth biscuits fragrant with lemon. A simple bake making them a perfect afternoon tea treat.
4.54 from 15 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Resting time: 30 mins
Total Time: 55 mins
Servings: 20 biscuits
Calories: 110kcal
Author: Lesley Garden

Ingredients

  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 130 g unsalted butter (block of butter only – at room temperature)
  • 3 zest of lemons (finely grated)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 large free-range egg
  • 200 g plain flour

Instructions

  • Place the sugar, butter, lemon zest and salt in a large mixing bowl and cream together until light and fluffy.
  • Add in a beaten egg and stir well to combine, before adding the flour and mixing to a stiff dough.
  • Place the dough on a sheet of baking paper, it will be a little sticky. Use the baking parchment to help you to form the shape of a log. Roll into a biscuit sized oblong shape, approximately 5cm in diameter and wrap up in the baking paper.
  • Place the dough in the fridge for 1-2 hours, until it has formed a solid block that you can slice. Or store in fridge overnight if preparing in advance.
  • When ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge, remove the paper and cut into 1cm slices. Place the biscuits onto a lined baking tray.
  • Bake the biscuits for 10 minutes at 180CFan. Once baked place on a wire rack to cool.

Notes

DO NOT use margarine or spreadable butter in this recipe as it will not set the dough. You need to use a block of butter if you want to achieve a stiff dough that you can roll into a log.
These simple biscuits are easily adapted to incorporate other flavours. Replace the lemon zest with orange for an orange flavoured biscuit. Add chocolate drops to the butter mixture and created chocolate chip biscuits.
The dough also freezes really well. Once you have made the dough, roll into an oblong and cut into 1cm slices. Place the slices in a single layer in a box, place a sheet of baking parchment between biscuits if freezing more than one layer. Take out and cook from frozen, simply increase the cooking time by 2-4 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
Lemon Butter Biscuits
Amount Per Serving
Calories 110 Calories from Fat 54
% Daily Value*
Fat 6g9%
Saturated Fat 3g19%
Cholesterol 22mg7%
Sodium 4mg0%
Potassium 36mg1%
Carbohydrates 14g5%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 5g6%
Protein 2g4%
Vitamin A 178IU4%
Vitamin C 9mg11%
Calcium 9mg1%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

• Please note that the nutrition information provided above is approximate and meant as a guideline only •

Course : Afternoon Tea, Baking, Dessert
Cuisine : British
Keyword : Easy, Quick, Simple
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Tagged With: biscuit, lemon, simple 12 Comments

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rebecca Fitzwilliam

    5 August, 2020 at 16:35

    Hi, will the dough roll so that I can use cutters? Looking for a tasty biscuit that I can ice.
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Michelle

      12 August, 2020 at 14:25

      Sorry for the delay in responding. You can roll out the dough, the mix will spread a bit in the oven though so my suggestion would be to roll them out, cut and chill for a good 20 minutes in the fridge and then bake. That will minimise the spread from the shape you are trying to make. I would say though don’t use an intricate shape as these are butter heavy, but things like hearts etc should be ok. Cheers, Michelle

      Reply
  2. Preethi

    3 June, 2020 at 18:38

    Can i skip egg in this recipe. Can’t wait to try this coming weekend!

    Reply
    • Lesley

      4 June, 2020 at 09:27

      Egg is the ingredient that binds the rest of the ingredients together to form a dough, and also holds the shape of the biscuit. It also gives these biscuits moisture and without the egg, the biscuits could be a little dense. If you can’t eat egg, then I would recommend following a traditional shortbread recipe and adding lemon zest that that instead. Shortbread is baked using no egg and only butter.

      Reply
  3. Mandy

    2 May, 2020 at 21:15

    4 stars
    Hi,

    Okay so I attempted these lemon biscuits and have no idea why the dough came out really wet and sticky. Even after chilling! I cannot for the life of me figure out what went wrong when usually I make a pretty good biscuit. Any ideas on what might have gone wrong would be appreciated:)

    Reply
    • Lesley

      5 May, 2020 at 10:07

      Hi Mandy, I’m not too sure why this might have happened as I make these all the time. The dough can be a little sticky when it comes out of the bowl, but using parchment paper it rolls into a log before going into the fridge. The only thing I can think is that your butter was too warm and perhaps a little too soft? What I will do is amend the resting time and suggest 1-2 hours in the fridge before cutting. Hopefully, that will ensure it works for everyone. Thanks Lesley

      Reply
      • Mandy

        9 May, 2020 at 19:29

        Hi Lesley,

        Thanks for the advice. I will definitely try again with your suggestion and see how it comes out next time-fingers crossed!

        Reply
        • Lesley

          11 May, 2020 at 08:35

          No problem Mandy. One last thought, are you using a block of butter rather than a spreadable butter? Spreadable butter doesn’t set like a block of butter would. Lesley

  4. Chloe Edges

    23 December, 2019 at 00:57

    Everyone needs a great simple biscuit in their repertoire and I think this one looks a stunner!

    Reply
    • Michelle

      23 December, 2019 at 17:52

      Thanks Chloe, can’t beat a quick biscuit where you can change up the flavours. Cheers, Michelle

      Reply
  5. Rowena

    21 October, 2019 at 12:20

    These lemony biscuits are so scrummy! I’m ready to try out various other flavours. Thank you so much

    Reply
    • Michelle

      29 October, 2019 at 23:39

      So glad you’ve enjoyed them. They work so well with lots of different flavours! Cheers, Michelle

      Reply

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