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lemon slab shortbread

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This lemon slab shortbread is the easiest thing you’ll make. It’s a quick and easy shortbread cookie that can be made and brought somewhere very easily. It is snackable and delicious with a strong buttery and lemon flavor. It can be easily doubled for a crowd, but as is, it is a nice small batch of delicious shortbread that you can eat yourself throughout the week or share with a friend.

Ingredients

Scale

113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temp (salted is fine too)

50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar

3/4 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

lemon zest from 1-2 lemons

120g (1 cup) all purpose flour

Lemon Vanilla Bean Glaze

120g (1 cup) powdered sugar

14g (1 Tbsp) butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 Tbsp lemon juice (might need a touch more)

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

zest from 1–2 lemons

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Zest a lemon into the granulated sugar. Rub the zest into the sugar with a spatula or your fingers to bring out the oils (aka, flavor) of the lemon.

Cream the butter, salt, and lemony granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Add the flour and mix until there are no dry floury bits and the dough has formed into a moist crumbly texture.

Pour the dough crumbles into an 1/8th sheet pan (6″ x 9″) lined with a bit of parchment paper. Press the dough with your fingers or an offset spatula to compress it into an even slab. Use the offset spatula to smooth the surface of the dough and even it out if necessary. Use a fork to dock the entire surface of the dough.

Bake the shortbread for 30-35 minutes or until it is evenly golden brown.

While the shortbread is baking, make the glaze icing. Combine powdered sugar, melted butter, a little salt, lemon zest, and vanilla bean paste (or extract) in a small bowl until smooth and fully combined.

Once the shortbread has cooled slightly but is still a little bit warm, pour the glaze on the shortbread and spread evenly with an offset spatula.

This is optional, but zest a fresh lemon over the surface of the glazed shortbread.

Let the glaze set for about ten minutes before cutting. Cut the shortbread into five even strips vertically, then cut the shortbread twice horizontally to divide the strips into fifteen rectangles. Eating it right away, the texture will be very crunchy with a still moist, very creamy glaze. Storing it at room temp in an airtight container and eating it the next day, the texture will be much softer and the glaze will have solidified, making the bite very cohesive.

Notes

    • Remember to soften your butter! It shouldn’t be cold right out of the fridge for this recipe. If you’re in a pinch and don’t have a few hours to let your butter naturally come to room temperature, microwave the butter for 2-3 seconds, rotate it, and microwave it for another 2-3 seconds. Keep doing this until it is a nice pliable and slightly soft texture without making it squishy or liquid-y. If you accidentally go too far, put it in the freezer while you prep the ingredients. It’s a fine balance.

    • Mise en place’ is a French phrase with the idea of putting everything in its place before beginning to make a recipe. It helps everything to go smoothly and eliminates so much possible stress. Getting all of your supplies and ingredients together before ever starting the recipe will help tremendously.

    • Weigh your ingredients, particularly the flour. It is the most important measurement in this recipe to weigh. Flour can be off in volume measurements by up to 30g, which is a quarter cup! Having incorrect flour measurements can cause your cookies to spread too much or, alternatively, be dry and crumbly. Weighing your ingredients makes everything so much easier, as you don’t have to wash all the measuring cups at the end. However, I do not use the scale to weigh out teaspoon or tablespoon measurements for things like baking powder, salt, vanilla, or cornstarch, for example.

        • How do I store lemon slab shortbread? Store it at room temperature in an airtight container. The shortbread will soften over time and be even more delicious.

        • Can I use other citrus? Yes, feel free to use lime, Meyer lemon, blood orange, tangerine, etc. Everything in the recipe will remain the same aside from what citrus you use.

        • What if I don’t have an 1/8th sheet pan? Use an 8″ x 8″ square pan, 8″ round pan, or a 9″ round cake pan/springform pan.

Find it online: https://linenandgray.com/lemon-slab-shortbread/