These delicious poppy seed lemon curd cookies are perfectly tangy with rich swirls of homemade lemon curd throughout each cookie. They’re a lemon lover’s dream and an absolute hit every single time I make them!
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💛 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s a great way to use leftover lemon curd. A 1x batch requires ½ cup of lemon curd, which makes the cookies super moist, lemony, and tart.
- This is a quick and easy no-chill recipe, meaning you don’t have to refrigerate the dough 30 minutes-1 hour before baking! AKA.. you can eat them within an hour.
- You won’t need any special equipment. Simply mix everything in one bowl with a spatula, scoop, and bake. And if you’re decorating some lemon cookies into chicks, the details are all done with melted chocolate!
Ingredients
To make these easy lemon poppy seed cookies, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Ingredient Notes
- This recipe calls for melted unsalted butter, which makes mixing easy! This means you don’t need electric beaters or even a hand whisk—a simple silicone spatula will do!
- You’ll need the juice and zest from one lemon.
- The zest will be mixed with your brown and granulated sugars to release the natural oils, enhancing the lemon flavor.
- The juice will be mixed in with the remaining wet ingredients.
- For extra lemony flavor, we will be adding in blobs of lemon curd to the finished cookie dough. This will create beautiful streaks of lemon curd throughout each cookie.
- To decorate the lemon curd cookies into chicks, I used white and milk/dark chocolate melting wafers. Alternatively, you can use chocolate chips or candy melts.
- The white chocolate wafers are dyed orange for the beaks and red for the blush. The milk/dark chocolate wafers are for the eyes.
- It’s best to use oil-based food coloring so the chocolate doesn’t seize. However, if you don’t have it on hand (like me), you can always stir in 1-2 tsp neutral oil (canola, vegetable) to the melted chocolate so it comes back together.
For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
Baking Tips
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- For rounder cookies, immediately place a circle cookie cutter or mug (that is larger in diameter than your cookie) on top of a warm, oddly-shaped cookie. Move it around in a circular motion. This “cookie scoot” step turns them into the more aesthetic, perfectly round cookies you see online! However, it’s not necessary and purely for pretty plating purposes. 🙂
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Rub together lemon zest and sugars until fragrant. This will help release the natural oils in the zest, enhancing the lemon flavor in the cookies!
Step 2: Mix in melted butter, stirring until combined.
Step 3: Stir in lemon juice, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
Step 4: Mix in dry ingredients and poppy seeds until no dry spots remain. Plop on large blobs of lemon curd and very lightly stir, making sure to keep some lemon curd streaks throughout the batter.
Step 5: Use medium cookie scoop to gather 2-3 tablespoons of dough into a ball. Place on lined baking tray, spacing cookies about 3-4 inches apart. If making a chick, add two ~½ tsp balls on top, making one slightly larger than the other, to create tufts of hair. Bake at 350°F/177°C for 11-13 minutes, or until edges are set. Let cool on pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack.
Step 6: Decorate cooled chick cookies using melted chocolates and enjoy!
For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
🍋 More Lemon Recipes
I really hope you enjoy this lemon curd swirl cookie recipe! If you make it, I’d love to see! You can tag me at #bitesbybianca / @bitesbybianca on Instagram.
📖 Recipe
Poppy Seed Lemon Curd Cookies
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Equipment
- 1 medium mixing bowl for dry ingredients
- 1 large mixing bowl for mixing dough
- 1 Medium cookie scoop holds 2-3 tablespoons dough
- Parchment Paper
- 2 small microwave-safe bowls, for melting chocolate
- 2 small silicone spatulas,
- 2 Piping bags can alternatively use toothpicks or Ziploc bags
- 1 pair of scissors,
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cups (218.75 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon (1 g) baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon (4.5 g) table salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (73.33 g) light or dark brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon (6 g) lemon zest from 1 small lemon
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) lemon juice from 1 small lemon
- 1 (1) egg room temperature
- 1 tablespoon (13 g) vanilla extract
Mix-ins:
- ½ cup (120 g) lemon curd
- 1 ½ tablespoons (13.5 g) poppy seeds
Decoration for face:
- 3 tablespoons (44.36 g) white chocolate melting wafers can sub 1:1 white chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp (14.79 g) milk/dark chocolate melting wafers can sub 1:1 milk/dark chocolate chips
- orange and red oil-based food coloring see decorating steps
Instructions
Make the cookie dough:
- In a medium bowl, stir together all of the dry ingredients: 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ¾ teaspoon table salt.
- In a large bowl, use fingers to massage ½ cup granulated sugar, ⅓ cup light or dark brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon lemon zest until fragrant. This releases the oils from the zest, enhancing the lemon flavor in the cookies.
- Using your silicone spatula, stir in melted ½ cup unsalted butter until smooth.
- Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 egg, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Dump in 1 ½ tablespoons poppy seeds and all of the dry ingredients. Mix until no dry spots remain.
- Plop large random blobs of lemon curd on top of your dough. Very lightly stir this into your cookie dough. Try to keep some streaks of lemon curd in it.
Scoop & bake cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- For regular cookies, use medium cookie scoop to gather 2-3 tablespoons of dough into a ball. Place on lined baking tray, spacing cookies about 3-4 inches apart.For chick design, add two ~½ tsp balls of dough (make one slightly larger than the other) on top of each cookie dough ball. These will be the tufts of hair.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until edges are set and golden brown. Let cool on pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Let cool completely.
Decorate chick cookies:
- Note: You can a piping bag, toothpick, or cookie scribe to add on the details. I used piping bags.
- Melt 3 tablespoons white chocolate melting wafers in a small microwave-safe bowl. Mix in orange oil-based food coloring and use this for the beaks.If you don't have oil-based food coloring, then the chocolate will seize/become lumpy. To counter this, stir in a tsp of neutral oil (canola, vegetable) at a time, until it becomes smooth again.
- Dye any remaining orange food coloring with red oil-based food coloring. Use this for the blush.
- Add 1 tbsp milk/dark chocolate melting wafers to another small microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until fully melted. Use this this to draw on eyes.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Tip for measuring ingredients: I weigh my ingredients with a kitchen scale, rather than using measuring cups because it is more accurate. If using measuring cups, I recommend spooning flour into the cup and overfilling it, then leveling it off with a knife.
(I am the author of this recipe)
I love lemon in desserts and adding lemon curd was such a yummy way to incorporate it! So flavorful and easy.