Lemon Shortbread Cookies (+ VIDEO!)

I am pretty sure you know I love lemon.  Anything lemon.  The more lemony the better, really.  Lemon has the ability to transform something quite ordinary with just the swift swipe of a microplane.  Like these Lemon Shortbread Cookies.  One minute they’re regular little shortbread cookies, and the next they’re alive and zesty – bits of yellow peel baked right in – giving miniature bursts of luscious lemon to every crumbly bite.  Like mini fireworks in your mouth, except they won’t set it on fire.

You can make these cookies any size you like, but because they are so much more filling than regular  cookies, I made them small.  You can always snaffle down two if one isn’t enough.  Better to choose two small ones than feel you have to devour one huge one, right?  I also used this same basic shortbread recipe as a tart crust for Lemon Mascarpone Tarts. Even though the base recipe I stole from the Vanilla Cranberry Shortbread that I gave you for Valentine’s Day, these taste like completely different cookies.  They are very simple to make and you can throw them together in a New York minute.  For our non-American friends, that’s very fast.

The baking is the longest bit.  Oh, no, hang on.  The waiting bit is – by far – the longest bit.  Yes, there’s waiting involved.  Best idea is to make these right before you to go bed, then you can just sleep through the waiting part and they’ll be there in the morning all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, begging to be devoured. Add a little zest to your cookie dough today, to get a little zest in your mouth tomorrow.  Because life is short, so we may as well make it as zesty as we can while we’re here!

Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Author: Carrie Brown | Prep time:  15 mins  |  Cook time:  20 mins   |  Total time:  35 mins  |  Serves: 20 – 24

What You Need

• 7 oz. / 200g almond flour (blanched ground almonds)
• 1 oz. / 30g chia seeds, finely ground
• 2½ oz. / 70g xylitol
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 3 oz. / 85g cold butter

What You Do

1. Put the almond flour, ground chia seeds, xylitol, xanthan gum, and lemon zest in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to mix well.
2. Cut the butter into small squares and add to the dry ingredients in the processor.
3. Pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Pulse a couple more times and it will start to ball together.
5. Turn out onto a work surface and lightly knead to form a soft dough.
6. Roll into a sausage shape about 1.5″ in diameter.
7. Use a serrated edge knife to slice the dough sausage into slices.
8. Place the slices on a baking sheet sprayed with coconut oil, and bake in the center of the oven at 300F, for 20 – 23 minutes until they are golden brown.
9. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheet. Step away from the cookies!
10. Once cool, move the cookies to a cooking rack and leave until completely cold.
11. Pack in an airtight container and leave overnight if you can possibly manage it, before you eat them. I know, I know. Trust me, they are better if left.

Top Recipe Tips

• Buy chia seeds and grind them in a coffee grinder or high-speed blender.
• Use either white or black chia seeds – there is no difference nutritionally. White looks prettier but black works just the same.

• Check out the Ingredients Guide for information on ingredients.
• Where Are The Macros and Nutritional Info?

Helpful Cooking and Recipe Links

• Come laugh and learn with us over at The Kitchen Podcast
• Come hang out in The Keto Kitchen Facebook Group
• For lots more great recipes check out our scrumptious cookbooks!

Podcast Episodes

• Nuts
• How and Why to Measure Food
• Where Are The Macros and Nutritional Info?

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