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.

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).

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:





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.

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!
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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.

Lemon Butter Biscuits
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
• Please note that the nutrition information provided above is approximate and meant as a guideline only •
Rebecca Fitzwilliam
Hi, will the dough roll so that I can use cutters? Looking for a tasty biscuit that I can ice.
Thanks
Michelle
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
Preethi
Can i skip egg in this recipe. Can’t wait to try this coming weekend!
Lesley
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.
Mandy
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:)
Lesley
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
Mandy
Hi Lesley,
Thanks for the advice. I will definitely try again with your suggestion and see how it comes out next time-fingers crossed!
Lesley
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
Chloe Edges
Everyone needs a great simple biscuit in their repertoire and I think this one looks a stunner!
Michelle
Thanks Chloe, can’t beat a quick biscuit where you can change up the flavours. Cheers, Michelle
Rowena
These lemony biscuits are so scrummy! I’m ready to try out various other flavours. Thank you so much
Michelle
So glad you’ve enjoyed them. They work so well with lots of different flavours! Cheers, Michelle