These Lemon Bar Cookie Cups are easy to make, and easier to serve than lemon bars. If you’re a lemon bar lover, you’ll love this cookie cup version.
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While searching for fun new cookie recipes to try, I saw several lemon thumbprint cookie recipes, and I couldn’t resist turning them into cookie cups. Cookie cups are fun to make, easy, and the possibilities are almost endless. After I tasted one of my lemon cookie cups, I realized it tasted like a lemon bar.
These Lemon Bar Cookie Cups are a sweet, slightly crumbly cookie filled with tart, silky smooth lemon curd, dressed up with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
I based this cookie on the Fudge-Filled Toffee Pecan Sandies recipe and filled it with homemade lemon curd. Of course, you could also use store-bought lemon curd, but this lemon curd is so fabulous you really need to give it a try.
This luscious, best-I’ve-ever-tasted Lemon Curd recipe is from FineCooking.Com and their foolproof method is really unique. You cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, slowly beat in whole eggs, then add the lemon juice, and finally, thicken it in a pan on the stove.
It is satiny smooth and you don’t need to worry about accidentally having bits of cooked egg white in your curd that need to be strained out.
The Lemon Curd recipe makes more than you’ll need for filling the cookies in this recipe. But it will keep in the refrigerator for a week, or it freezes well and will keep in the freezer for 2 months. I made a double batch of lemon curd and plan to make mini lemon pies next week with the extra.
Update: This has become one of my most popular recipes on Pinterest, so I updated it with some new pictures, a new collage for Pinterest, and a video to show you how easy they are to make.
If you haven’t tried this one yet, you really should. It’s one of my all time favorites too.
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Lemon Bar Cookie Cups
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour*
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda*
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup sugar*
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar powdered sugar
- ½ cup canola oil
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup lemon curd recipe below
- powdered sugar for decorating optional
Lemon Curd
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- ⅔ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Instructions
- Prepare lemon curd.
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Combine the flours, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the oil, egg and extracts. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture and stir until combined.
- Drop one tablespoon dough (I used a #50 scoop) into each cup of a greased mini muffin tin or lined with mini cupcake liners. Bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove from oven and using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make an indentation in the center of each cookie. Fill with a teaspoon of lemon curd.
- Return to the oven and bake for an additional 4 minutes, or until cookies are firm and lightly browned on the sides. Remove to wire racks to cool.
- Sprinkle the edges of the cookies with powdered sugar.
Lemon Curd
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, until well combined. Add the eggs and yolks and beat for 1 min. Add the lemon juice and mix until blended – the mixture will look lumpy.
- In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it melts. Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don’t let the mixture boil. (Once it was completely melted, mine thickened and reached 170º in just a few minutes, so watch it closely.)
- Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.
Video
Notes
- I made the following high altitude adjustments for the cookies: added 2 tablespoons flour, reduced baking soda to ¼ teaspoon, and subtracted 1 tablespoon sugar.
- Lemon Curd recipe slightly adapted from from Fine Cooking
Nutrition
More lemon dessert recipes you might like:
Lemon Doodle Cookies, Barbara Bakes
Lemon Bliss Bundt Cake, Barbara Bakes
Lemon Blackberry Chess Pie, Barbara Bakes
Lemon Lovers Trifle, Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen
Lemon Jello Cake, Sweet Basil
Lemon Whippersnaps, Mom On Timeout
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Nutmeg Nanny
This cookie looks amazing! I love the tart lemon curd. It would be tasty with lime curd too…yum!
Melanie
I like, maybe not love, lemon bars, but these look much better than lemon bars to me. I love the idea of using homemade lemon curd. I’d never dream of buying it, cause I’ve wanted to try making my own forever. Super idea to put it into mini cups!!
Kara
I will HAVE to try these sometime. They look AWESOME!
Shannon
I love lemon bars. My mom would make them every year at Christmas and I would love to make these for her! I love that they are bite-sized. Great for parties.
cindy
I have never made lemon curd, and I love lemons! I like the idea of mini lemon pies for Thanksgiving. Looks like I need to make this lemon curd. The cookies look so yummy!
Annalise
Oh my, these look fabulous! I’m a complete and utter lemon curd fan, going to try these cookies for sure!
kelley
I love lemon bars! My mom and I do a big cookies baking day every holiday season and we love to try new ones. Can’t wait to make these. Thanks for sharing!!
Libby
Be still my heart! Nothing like some good lemon curd. I keep a regular supply going during the summer. Never thought of a cookie treat though!
Kathy - Cooking On the Side
These sound fantastic, Barbara!
Lyndsey@TheTinySkillet
Barbara these look so good. I am thrilled to see this recipe, my lemon tree is full and will be ready to pick in December.
Ann@Anncoo Journal
So pretty! I’d love to try this yummy cookies 🙂
BreAna {Sugar & Spice & All Things Iced}
Yummy! I LOVE lemon desserts! These little cookies look perfect, I think they would be lovely for Thanksgiving.
Lora
Ooh these are just gorgeous. what a great idea to turn them into cups.
Kalyn
I would have a hard time staying in control if there was a plate of these in front of me. I love lemon; my favorite desserts are all lemon or lime!
Katrina
I love that you made little cup cookies–so did I–chocolate/pb cup! Great minds!
I actually made this very same lemon curd over the summer (have never made lemon curd before that). Great recipe. I started a post for it and a lemon coffee cake I made with it, but never have finished the post.
Yum! That would be fun for the holidays–to only make mini cup type cookies!
sue
That looks awesome, i tried lemon curd earlier this year, but the method I used did not work so great. I will have to try this out.
Megan
I wish I had made these instead of lemon bars for the wedding dessert table. They sound amazing. Stumbled, pinned, and all that! 🙂
Blog is the New Black
Love this! They are adorable!
Rosa
What a great idea! I am sucker for lemon curd.
Cheers,
Rosa
Lisa
Wow..these lemon bar cookie cups are cute as buttons, and no doubt a treat to eat. Another cookie I need to add to my bookmarks!