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These Poppy Seed Lemon Linzer Cookies that I'm sharing were one of the desserts I made for Easter dinner.
We always spend Easter at our good friend's house and I'm asked to bring a sweet treat or two. The ages for the guests start at 8 mos. and go upward to 60 so I try to come up with something that I think will appeal to everyone.
These cookies are a delicate shortbread with a homemade lemon curd and were enjoyed by all the guests.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter
- Sugar
- Confectioner's Sugar
- Vanilla Extract
- Flour
- Poppy Seeds
- Eggs
- Lemons
For the cookies, I found a cookie cutter kit that was especially designed for making Linzer cookies, like the one pictured above from Amazon. But you could use a any type of cookie cutter and get small ones for the center. These could be adapted for any holiday - small hearts for Valentine's day, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
Linzer Cookies are usually made with flour, unsalted butter, eggs and flavorings such as vanilla or almond extract. The cookies are filled with a fruit butter, jam or curd and dusted with confectioner's sugar.
A curd is made by cooking together fruit juice, egg yolks, butter and sugar to make a delicious thick custard-like spread. think of it like a sweet condiment that can be used with all kinds of baked goods like muffins, scones, and cookies. Lemon curd has a very intense lemon flavor from the juice and zest of fresh lemons.
Lemon curd and lemon pie filling are similar but lemon curd has a more intense flavor. The texture is different also between lemon curd is thickened with egg yolks and the natural pectin from the lemon juice and zest. Pie filling is thickened with cornstarch or flour usually.
Recipe Variations
And if you really don't want to fuss with making lemon curd, substitute jam, which makes these cookies super easy to make! Omit the poppy seeds and instead of lemon curd, use one of these flavors of jam:
- Raspberry
- Strawberry
- Apricot
- Blueberry
If you liked these Linzer Cookies, you might also like:
- Homemade Twix Cookies - Juggling Act Mama
- Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies - Valerie Kitchen
- Chewy M&M Brownie Cookies - Juggling Act Mama
More Lemon Recipes
📋 Lemon Linzer Cookies
Not ready to make this linzer cookie recipe yet? Don’t forget to pin the recipe for later.
When you do make it, please comment and leave me a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below; it totally makes my day!
Poppy Seed Lemon Linzer Cookies
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Ingredients
Shortbread
- 3 sticks of soft unsalted butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 ½ cups flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tbl poppy seeds
Lemon Curd
- 1 large egg
- 6 large egg yolks
- ½ cup sugar
- Zest from 2 lemons finely grated
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice
- pinch salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter cut into cubes
Instructions
Shortbread
- Mix the butter, sugars, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy.3 sticks of soft unsalted butter, ½ cup sugar, ½ confectioners sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Reduce to low speed and slowly add the flour and salt. When mixed, add the poppy seeds and continue mixing for 1 minute.3 ½ cups flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 2 tbl poppy seeds
- Remove the dough and divide it in two. Place one half between two sheets of parchment paper and roll until ¼" thick. Using a cookie cutter to cut out the bottoms (removing unused dough, re-rolling and continue to make more bottoms until first half of dough is used up). Place all bottoms on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and freeze for an hour. Do the same thing with the other half of the dough and use a small shape cookie cutter to cut out centers.
- To bake preheat the oven to 325 and bake the cookies about 10-12 minutes until light brown. Remove and cool on a wire rack and cool completely. With the top cookie, dust with confectioners sugar
Lemon Curd
- Use a double boiler and bring water to simmer in pan making sure it won't touch the bottom of the top part.
- In the top of the double boiler, add all of the ingredients except the butter. Set it over the simmering water and whisk the mixture constantly until it reaches 170 degrees then remove from stove.1 large egg, 6 large egg yolks, ½ cup sugar, Zest from 2 lemons, ½ cup fresh lemon juice, pinch salt
- Add butter and stir until melted.1 stick unsalted butter cut into cubes
- Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.
- Place this bowl inside another bowl that is filled with ice water.
- Let the mixture stand at room temperature until it is cooled and thickened (this part can be done a day ahead and kept refrigerated until needed)
Assemble
- Place about 1 teaspoon lemon curd on bottom cookie and then place top on and slightly press together.
tanya says
Lemon curd is the best! These cookies are absolutely adorable!!
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Thanks Tanya!
Sarah says
I've been wanting to make linzer cookies for awhile - thanks so much for the great recipe!
Sarah
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Glad you like it Sarah!
rita Greggs says
Linzer cookies are so good but I' haven't tried them with lemon before - great idea!
Rita
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
You'll need to give them a try Rita 🙂
Lyuba@willcookforsmiles says
Awesome looking (and sounding) cookies, Deb!! Pinned!
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Thanks for stopping by Lyuba - appreciate the pin!
Ashley | Spoonful of Flavor says
I'm obsessed with anything lemon and these linzer cookies are so pretty! Love the creamy lemon curd filling!
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Thanks Ashley! I love lemons as you might know 🙂
Kelly says
Love how pretty these cookies look! They sound fantastic with the lemon curd too - pinned 🙂
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Thanks Kelly! Appreciate the pin and hope you are doing well!
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Thanks so much Winnie and for the pin!
Gloria // Simply Gloria says
Deb, I'm going to have to grab this kind of cookie cutter! I'm truly obsessed with how pretty these are... and with lemon!
ZaInab says
You know how much I love lemon!! These cookies look amazing.
Kelley says
Yum! These look great! Another recipe with lemon curd.. I need to try it asap!
Becca from It's Yummi! says
You did a beautiful job with these, Deb.... they're gorgeous!
Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Thanks Becca!
Claire @ A Little Claireification says
These are amazing! I am so in love with Linzer cookies and I make these every year. Thank you!!
Wendy says
I'm wondering if these can be frozen? I love anything lemon and these look so beautiful.
Ang Paris says
Yes, wrap them in plastic wrap and then put them into a freezer bag and carefully remove all the air.
Jerri says
Wow! These look yummy!
Maria says
These look fabulous!!! Linzer cookies are my all-time favorite cookies, in fact, I baked some this weekend and still have some left in the cookie jar right now! I only ever make the traditional jam ones since that's what my grandma used to make, but these sound delicious!