Lemon Bar Cookie Cups

By Addie

A sweet, slightly crumbly cookie filled with tart, silky smooth lemon curd, dressed up with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. If you’re a lemon bar lover, you’ll love this cookie cup version. It’s easy to make, and easier to serve than lemon bars.

While searching for fun new recipes to try for 12 weeks of Christmas cookies, I saw several lemon thumbprint cookie recipes, and I couldn’t resist turning them in to 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.

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.

Ingredients

• COOKIES:
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup lemon curd (recipe below)
• powdered sugar for decorating, optional
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• LEMON CURD:
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Details

Adapted from barbarabakes.com

Preparation

Step 1

FOR THE COOKIES:

Preheat oven to 350°. 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. 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 to the cookies with powdered sugar.
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FOR THE LEMON CURD:

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes. (Once it was completely melted, mine thickened and reached 170º in just a few minutes, so watch it closely.) 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.

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.