Delicate and buttery, these lemon pâte sucrée cookies blend zesty lemon flavor with a sweet, tender crust for a perfect teatime snack!

What is Pâte Sucrée?

Pâte Sucrée or sweet tart dough is a crisp, and slightly sweet pastry crust that is commonly used for French fruit tarts. Some people may confuse short crust pastry with pâte sucrée, but short crust pastry is flakier and does not contain egg or sugar. (some people will add sugar to short crust pastry to make sweet pies and tarts)

Pâte Sucrée Cookie Idea

I recently purchased a set of adorable vintage Swedish mini tartlet molds from Etsy and planned to make some tartlets based on a lovely pâte sucrée recipe from one of my go to books, The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea by Helen Simpson. Why did I end up making cookies then? I have a new oven in the kitchen and this oven bakes pastries faster than my old one. Basically, most of my tartlets got scorched! By the time, I decided to give it another try few weeks later, I was in mood for cookies so I decided to make lemon cookies instead using the same dough type.

I adapted the original recipe so the dough will yield enough cookies (at least 25!) and included lemon zest to the dough for lemony flavor and fragrance. I also made tangy lemon glaze for my cookies for that extra burst of lemon.

How to Make Pâte Sucrée

Making a pastry dough from scratch may seem intimidating but it’s easier than you think. It’s done in few easy steps!

Whisk together dry ingredients, plus lemon zest in a medium sized bowl.
Next, add very cold, cubed butter pieces and using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture. This will take few minutes and when the butter pieces are incorporated, it will resemble coarse crumbs.
Make a well in a center of the flour mixture and add egg yolk and vanilla extract.
Gently combine egg yolk(s), vanilla extract, with flour mixture. Add cold water to bind the mixture and form into a ball.
Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 2-24 hours.

After the dough had ample to time to chill, it’s time to roll it out! If your dough happens to be rock hard, just leave on the counter for 5-10 minutes to soften.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to ¼” thickness.
Use 2½” cookie cutter or mini tartlet molds (2½” across) to cut out cookies.
Arrange cookies at least 1″ apart on a lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookie edges are starting turn light golden brown.

Add Lemon Glaze

These lemon cookies are delicious on their own, but as a lemon lover, lemon glaze elevates these cookies to another level! Here’s what you need:

⅔ cup icing sugar
1 tsp flour
1½ tsp lemon juice
2½ tsp milk or half and half

Whisk together all the ingredients in a small bowl, brush lemon glaze over each cookie and let cookies sit on a rack until glaze sets.

Storing and Enjoying Lemon Pâte Sucrée Cookies!

You can store these delicate cookies in a airtight container and store it in a cool, dry place for up to ten days.

Serve these sweet and tart cookies on pretty spring themed dessert plates with a nice cup of tea! Featured here are my vintage toile print plates from Williams-Sonoma in robin egg blue and my rose pink tea cups from Luneville, France.

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