Strawberry Lemonade Thumbprint Cookies are a tangy sweet treat that brings summer and sunshine into a bite-sized cookie! These amazing little cookies have a sweet lemonade glaze that is perfectly complemented with the tartness of lemony goodness in a shortbread cookie!
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Is there anything better than shortbread or thumbprint cookies? Pair those with tangy lemon and sweet strawberry for a perfect bite of summer in these Strawberry Lemonade Thumbprint cookies! I love shortbread. The buttery, salty sweetness is a perfect combination. These cookies offer an amazing lemony flavor, there is a tart bite that is perfectly offset by the sweet strawberry glaze.
These cookies are so good! It is hard to not eat them all right away. They are truly like a tiny bite of summer!
Tips for Success
Success for this recipe is in the details! Make sure your butter is room temperature. Do not melt or heat it! I like to take my butter out of the fridge about an hour prior to preparing the dough. If your butter is too warm, it will be difficult to mix with the sugar to a nice fluffy consistency.
Chill the dough for at least an hour prior to baking. You want the dough to be well chilled prior to baking to prevent the cookie from spreading too much. Often I like to roll my dough into balls and then and place the balls in the freezer for 5-10 minutes while my oven is preheating. This ensures the cookie dough balls do not spread too much.
Use the back of a metal rounded teaspoon to make an indent in the cookie after 5 minutes of baking. The dough may crack when making the indent. Smooth these out if you can, a few cracks are fine but the large ones will allow your glaze to escape. After making the initial indent, I like to give another press of the cookies once they have completed baking, to ensure a good bed to hold the glaze.
Do not overcook these Strawberry Lemonade Thumbprint cookies! After making the indent in the cookies, I set my timer for 10 minutes and check them at that point. You want to catch these right when the bottoms turn slightly golden, do not let them brown!
Strawberry Lemonade Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Butter Softened
- ½ Cup Granulated Sugar
- ¼ Cup Confectioner's Sugar
- 2 ½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 2 TBSP Lemon Zest Finely Chopped
- 3 TBSP Lemon Juice
- ½ TSP Kosher Salt
- Confectioner's Sugar For Dusting
Strawberry Lemonade Glaze
- 2½ Cups Confectioner's Sugar
- 2 TBSP Lemon Juice
- 2 TBSP Strawberry Jam
- 1 TBSP Milk
- ½ TSP Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together flour, ¼ cup Confectioner's Sugar, and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand-mixer, beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add in lemon zest and lemon juice and beat until well mixed.
- Add in the flour mixture in batches, until just combined.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 325° and prepare baking sheets by lining with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
- Remove dough from the refrigerator and roll into 1-inch balls.
- Transfer dough balls to baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
- Bake dough balls for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and gently press an indent into the center of the dough ball with the back of a teaspoon.
- Return cookies to the oven for another 10-12 minutes. Bake only until lightly golden on the bottoms of the cookies. DO NOT overcook.
- Remove cookies from the oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes prior to transferring to a wire rack to cool.
- Before completely cooled, dust cookies with confectioners sugar.
Strawberry Lemonade Glaze
- With a hand mixer, whisk together confectioner's sugar, lemon juice, strawberry jam, milk, and vanilla extract until a smooth consistency. Glaze should be smooth but slightly stiff, to prevent running from the cookie.
- Using a piping bag, fill the indent of each cookie with approximately ½ TSP of Strawberry Lemonade glaze.
- Allow glaze to set prior to serving.
Real Fruit Flavors!
I love that these cookies are made with real lemon juice and lemon zest. That real lemony flavor comes through really well and tastes like like a cold glass of strawberry lemonade! Make the cookies your own, switch out the strawberry with raspberry or blueberry jam!
These Strawberry Lemonade Thumbprint Cookies pair together fresh flavors of lemon and strawberry for a delicious cookie that tastes like summer! These cookies will fly off the plate!
