Sugar Cookie Lemon Tarts
Published Aug 20, 2013•Updated Apr 19, 2022
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You’ll love these simple, fresh lemon tarts with no finicky crusts. Just bite-sized lemony-goodness with a sweet cookie crust.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about change. Not big, drastic, life-altering change, but the sort of small nuances that keep us on our toes and make us feel like we are moving towards something bigger. Maybe I’ve just been eating too many of World’s Best Whole Wheat Pancakes and just need to liven up my breakfast routine.
If you buy into the broad strokes used to paint entire generations of people, at 32, I fall into a strange gap between the “millennials” and Gen X. We’re a group that, if Buzzfeed is to be considered a reliable source, has a bit of an identity crisis.
Unfortunately, I do relate to the stereotype that many of us in this generation are never quite satisfied. Instead of living in the moment, we’re always looking ahead to the next thing.
People sometimes assume that living abroad is, in itself, an ongoing adventure. I thought it too before moving to Thailand. Many things about this life are exciting, but it’s not the long, leisurely vacation I pictured it to be. As it turns out, just like anywhere else, we still wake up to alarms, grumble through our morning commutes, get home late with no plan for dinner, curl up on the couch with a mug of tea to watch Top Chef.
And really, it’s a good thing. Not every moment can hold an adventure – the ones that do would start to lose their magic.
For all my pondering about the next “big” thing – where we will live when we move home to the U.S., what job I will have, even what car I will drive – I’d do better if I just let it go. (We’re not moving home any time soon, after all.)
I try to remember that, if we give them a little space our lives construct themselves in ways that are unexpected, sometimes scary, and often so very wonderful. Never in a million years would I have imagined mine would bring me to Bangkok. That is a change that just happened to come along at exactly the right time.
For all my planning and thinking ahead, I know this moment is worth holding onto. There are Saturday afternoons of baking the world’s simplest lemon tarts with a sugar cookie crust and Sunday brunches spent with friends, sipping mimosas and eating pumpkin cheesecake bites.
Despite my inner generation-whateverness that makes me yearn for some new twist, the stuff that’s happening right now is pretty good too.
More Bite Sized Desserts
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites
- Apple Cider Donut Mini Muffins
- Bite-Sized Chocolate Brownie Cookies with Candy Cane Topping
- Mini Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
- Mini Lime Cheesecakes
- Mini Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pecan Pies
- Chocolate Chip Brownie Tarts
- Mini Cheesecakes
- Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookie Cups
- Chocolate-Dipped Banana Bread Truffles
Favorite Tools
- Stand or Handheld Mixer
- Parchment Paper Sheets
- Mini Muffin Tin
- Anchor 3-Piece Glass Mixing Bowls
- Whisk
- Cooling Rack
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Sugar Cookie Lemon Tarts
Equipment
- Mini Muffin Tin
- Stand or Handheld Mixer
- Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 8 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, softened (115 g)
- 1/2 cup Granulated sugar (100 g)
- 1 Egg
- 1 1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour (190 g)
- 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 pinch Salt
For the Lemon Filling:
- 2 Eggs
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 1/4 cup Whipping Cream
- juice from 1 large lemon
- 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
For Topping:
- 4 Tbsp Powdered Sugar, divided
- 1/2 cup Whipping Cream
Instructions
- To make the sugar cookie crust, in a standing mixer (or by hand) beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes oh high. Add the egg and mix on medium until fully incorporated. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt all at once and mix on medium just until no spots of flour remain, about 20 seconds (do not overmix). Wrap the dough in parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a mini muffin tin with butter or cooking spray.
- While the oven is preheating, make the lemon filling by whisking together the eggs, egg yolks, whipping cream, lemon juice, and granulated sugar until smooth.
- Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Divide the dough into quarters and divide each quarter into six even balls of dough. Press each ball of dough it into a space in the muffin tin. Using your thumbs, press the dough into the tin so that it is evenly distributed along the sides and bottom. (Don't worry if it is a bit thinner in some places than others.) Pour the lemon filling into the center of each sugar cookie cup, stopping just below the top of the crust.
- Bake until the filling is set and the crust begins to turn golden, 10-12 minutes. (Do not over bake - pull the tarts out just when you see any golden color on the crusts.) Allow these to cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Before serving, dust the tops of the tarts with 2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar. Beat the whipping cream with the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon the whipping cream on top of each tart. Serve chilled.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Can you use premade sugar cookie dough for this?
Yes! Premade sugar cookie dough works great here.
Do these lemon tarts freeze well
Hi Jacqueline – I’ve never had much luck with freezing the whole tarts. I have made the shells (but baked them for just about 5 minutes until they were set) and frozen them, then filled and re-baked until the filling set. It worked but they still weren’t quite as good as when baked and served as written.
Thanks for sharing!
This is the 3rd time making these for Easter. So so good, always a huge hit. Love this recipe and lemon tarts.
If im using premade homemade lemon curd, trying to not just eat it with a spoon, would i still add the cream? I don’t like crust so I’m very excited about the cookie idea! So pretty thanks for sharing!
These didn’t work at all for me. The first time, I used a different sugar cookie recipe. Those didn’t work out, so I remade them. Both times, the curd rose way more than it should have. I filled it well below the top of the dough, and it still rose to spilling over the muffin pan. I followed the filling recipe exactly both times.
Hi Lauren – I’m so sorry to hear that these didn’t turn out! Truthfully, I’m not sure what could have happened. Every time I’ve made them, I’ve filled the cookie cups to the level shown in the photos and never had them overflow. This recipe is on my list to re-test in early 2017, so I’ll definitely see if I can get to the bottom of the issue. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know.
Could store bought dough be used?
Hi Beulah – I’ve had others tell me that they used store-bought dough and had great success with it. I need to try it myself, but I’m sure it would work!
I have some store- bought pastry tart shells that I am hoping to use for this recipe in place of the cookie pastry. I am thinking that they will cook much the same. Do you think that will work?
Hi Carol – store-bought pastry tart shells will definitely work! I think the cook time should be very similar, just watch them carefully and pull them out of the oven as soon as the centers look like they’ve set.
My favorite of all time. So delicious. Awesome recipe.
Simon
Thanks so much for letting me know Simon!
Hi Jess,
I just made the lemon tarts and was wondering if they were supposed to be eggy (scrambled) looking. I followed the recipe exactly the way you said to do it. I had to cook them a few minutes longer because the crust wouldn’t brown.
Hi Larissa – I’ve never had the filling appear scrambled, but it may just be that the ingredients in the filling weren’t fully combined, so they separated a bit while baking. This shouldn’t affect the taste, but may just not look quite like in the photo. I pull mine out of the oven just as the crust starts to develop some color, so I try to avoid too much browning on the crust so they don’t over-bake. Thanks so much for chiming in!
Do you think that I could replace the whipping cream with greek yogurt for the lemon filling?
Katie – I haven’t tried that sub, but my instinct is that, yes – you could sub greek yogurt for the whipping cream. Let me know how it turns out!