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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Alaina Andersen
instead of whole wheat flour can i use all purpose instead
Barbara Schieving
Hi Alaina – yes, all-purpose flour works well in this recipe too.
Peg
Made them….yummmmm
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Peg! One of my favorites for sure. Glad you enjoyed them as well.
Chelsi
This recipe (both the lemon cups and the curd alone) have become a forever favorite in our home. I’ve learned to buy a whole bag of lemons (8 or so) in case I somehow mess up the curd and it comes out not thick enough. The curd flavor is definitely super sweet, but when paired with the dough it’s just an amazing pair. Unfortunately the curd recipe page doesn’t work anymore… 🙁 I’m so glad the ingredients are included on this page, but I’m going to miss having the actual page for reference.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Chelsi – so nice to hear you love the recipe. I’m surprised Fine Cooking is no longer online, I wonder if Food & Wine will eventually redirect to their recipes. Thanks for the heads up.
Annie
If I froze the baked cookie cups, should I let them thaw in the fridge before adding in the curd to bake for a few mins?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Annie – no need to thaw them in the fridge if they’re frozen without the lemon curd. Just thaw them on the counter for about an hour. Enjoy!
Milton Smartt
And if you chill the dough before you try to put it into the mini muffin cups it makes it easier to handle
Milton Smartt
If you use a pastry bag with a plain round tip to pipe the lemon curd into the indentation it saves a ton of time and is much easier.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks for sharing your tips Milton.
Kosette
These are great!! The curd was so easy to make and absolutely delicious!! And then the cookie – so soft and crumbly and sweet and perfect! They’re simple and tiny – a perfect treat with tea (or to sneak through the day). Recipe saved – as someone who really really loves lemon, I see my future filled with these little cups! So grateful for the recipe!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks so much Kosette! It’s a recipe I make all the time too. Nice to “meet” another lemon lover.
Chelsi Lopez
I love these! I totally bribe my boyfriend with these…he’s obsessed with them. It took a few tries to get the Lemon Curd recipe right, as I’d never made any kind of curd before, but I learned the trick and it’s so easy. I really enjoy the cookies themselves because they actually go really well with jellies or just by themselves as a snack. I’ve thought about making a batch for quick snacks for lunches and such. Thanks so much for the recipe it’s definitely going to stay with us for life!!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Chelsi! I agree they really are versatile.
Sandy
This lemon curd was so easy and so delicious.
Barbara Schieving
Great – thanks Sandy!
Cindy
Just found your site and this recipe. I wondered if you could tell me how you measure flour. Do you spoon it into a measuring cup or dip the cup into the flour and then sweep off the excess? Better still, can you tell me your typical weight of a cup of flour?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Cindy – here’s my post on my preferred method for measuring flour https://www.barbarabakes.com/how-to-measure-flour/ I weighed a cup for you and it was 140 grams.
Cindy
Thank you! I prefer weighing flour for accuracy and appreciate your prompt reply!
Linda
Do these freeze well?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Linda – yes, they freeze well. Store them in freezer Ziploc bags and they’ll keep for 2 months.
Sandi S Johns
these are wonderful!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Sandi!
Rebecca
How long will these keep after made?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Rebecca – If not serving them right away, you can keep them in the refrigerator for up to four days. They do freeze well and will keep up to four months frozen. Enjoy!
Abbie
These are Scrumtpuous! The homemade lemon curd is divine and so easy to make. it’s a tangy creamy curd that complements the cookie cup. The curd is enough to fill 6 dozen of the cookie cups. The cups themselves are very delicate – I’m glad I read through all the reviews and saw that some bakers found them difficult to remove from pan. a few bakers used mini-muffin paper liners These were going to a Christmas cookie exchange so we put them in some colorful liners. The curd. set up well after baking and cooling. the crusty shells softened somewhat after sitting overnight covered well with plastic wrap. The cookie cups did NOT stick to the liners. I tripled the recipe and made 6 dozen with enough dough to make at least 3 dozen more.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Abbie – thanks for sharing your tips. So glad you loved the cookies!
Cody Snyder
I used this recipe this year and won best in division for cookies at our local county fair! The lemon curd can be canned and also won first place at fair. It has become my most asked for recipe, they are always gone before any other desert. I have used the cookie cup and filled it with all kinds of different jams or jelly’s. The curd is always the favorite but to experiment is fun!
Barbara Schieving
That’s awesome – I feel like I won too 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Laurie Cowan
Your recipe was confusing as it did not clarify if one should let the curd cool before adding a spoonful to the cookie cup.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Laurie – in step 3 of the lemon curd recipe it states “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.” However, if you didn’t chill the curd before adding it to the cookie, that would work as well. The curd just wouldn’t be as thick. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Bella
Can I freeze the cookie cups after they’re made?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Bella – yes, you can freeze the cookie cups after they’re made.
Kristie Maldonado
For the lemon curd if I only have salted butter is that ok?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Kristie – salted butter will also work well.
Anna
Can you make these on regular sized muffin tins? I don’t have a mini-muffin pan? Should I just double the recipe?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Anna – instead of making them in a regular size muffin tin, I would just make them like you would make a thumbprint cookie and bake them on a baking sheet. Similar to this https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/thumbprint_cookies/
Susan Robinson
Do you need to use whole wheat flour?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Susan – no you can use all purpose flour.