These Blackberry Lemon Shortbread Cookies were so easy to make.

Originally Published 03/04/2022

I just wanted to make a quick and delicious dessert that matched the happy spring weather outside and these shortbread cookies fit the ticket!

Every March here in Tennessee we will get a couple of these glorious warm days where it gets up in the high 60s.

The daffodils pop up, the trees start waking up.

I want to run to Lowes and buy all the plants (in previous years I have fallen into this trap).

Yes. It is a trap. Because it’s almost guaranteed that a couple of weeks after these nice days, it will snow or hard frost.

And I will have to go back to Lowes at the end of April to re-buy said plants lol.

So yesterday I celebrated the weather with baking instead of gardening.

These Blackberry Lemon Shortbread Cookies look so cute and fancy. They take about 15-20 minutes to whip up and another 18-20 minutes to bake.

The frosting looks piped, but it’s actually dipped.

Not a lot of fuss for a whole lot of flavor.

So let’s get on to the recipe!

---

I used the food processor to make the dough for these Blackberry Lemon Shortbread Cookies.

It’s a whole lot less work throwing all the ingredients in there and letting it cut everything together.

However, if you don’t have a food processor, you can use a pastry blender and do all the mixing by hand. The result will still be the same!

Start by adding 1 cup of unsalted butter cubed, a 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp lemon zest, and a 1/2 tsp of salt to the processor. 

Run it until the butter and sugar combine into a crumbly mixture. 

---

Next,

pour in the 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup of coconut flour, and a 1/4 cup frozen blackberries.

If you don’t have coconut flour you can just use all all-purpose flour.

The coconut flour does add a nice flavor though, and because it’s gluten-free, it helps cut back on the amount of gluten in the dough which in turn creates a “shorter” shortbread.

Using frozen blackberries, as opposed to fresh, does two things:

1. because they are frozen they won’t incorporate as quickly into the dough creating the pretty marbling effect

2. because they are frozen, they help keep the butter cold and make the shortbread dough easy to work with – no chilling of the dough is required before cutting out the cookies and baking them

It’s a win, win, win. 

Once all the ingredients for these Blackberry Lemon Shortbread Cookies have been combined,

dump all the crumbliness out on the counter. 

You might feel like you’ve just got a giant mess on your hands right now. Don’t panic, just keep scooping everything into a pile and pressing it together.

The warmth from your hands will melt some of the butter and the dough will form a ball. After this, flour the counter and roll the shortbread dough out into a 1/4″ thick round.

Choose a cookie cutter of your liking and cut out alllllll the cookies. Keep rolling the dough scraps back into a ball, re-roll it out, and cut out more until all the dough is gone.

The cookie cutter I used allowed me to get 26 cookies out of the dough. You may get more or less if your cookie cutter is bigger or smaller! Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

These Blackberry Lemon Shortbread Cookies don’t spread out a whole lot while they’re baking, so you can put quite a few on a sheet without worrying about them growing together in the oven. I’d say leave about a 1/2″ of space between each cookie. 

---

Next, bake the Blackberry Lemon Shortbread Cookies

at 325° for 18-20 minutes. You can put both trays in at once, just swap them around halfway through to help them bake evenly.

Or bake one at a time, placing the other tray in the fridge while it waits its turn. This will keep the butter colder and solid. These cookies just need to be set. They shouldn’t really even turn brown around the edges. Mine were done at exactly 18 minutes. 

Once they’ve finished baking, remove the blackberry lemon shortbread cookies from the tray and let them cool on a cooling rack before frosting them.

---

Now for the lemon icing!

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar with 3 tbsp of lemon juice and 1 tsp of lemon zest.

Take each fully cooled Blackberry Lemon Shortbread cookie and dip the top into the icing. You don’t need to plunge it in there, just get the top lol. 

Shake off the excess icing, flip the cookie back upright and set it on the cooling rack again.

As the frosting dries it will create a thin crust.

As long as you didn’t get too much icing on the top, it should just stay magically right in place. I did get a little carried away on a few with too much icing, and it dripped down the sides. Less is more lol.

And that is that! Now you can enjoy one (or three) of these pretty, delicious Blackberry Shortbread Cookies! Let me know if you give these a shot! Did you find them easy to make? Do you love the tart, refreshing flavor? Are you ready for Spring!? 

---

---