A great alternative to lemon bars that you don’t have to cut into squares!
You can replace the poppy seeds with chopped almonds, candied ginger or dried cranberries.
For special diets: use gluten-free flour. For a vegan version, use vegan butter and replace the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of  ground flax seeds and 3 tablespoons water.
Make the batter ahead and refrigerate for up to two days before baking. You can also bake and freeze the cookie cups (decorate with icing just before serving) for up to three months.
With or without icing, these little cookie cups are a great addition to your list of easy desserts.
See the photos for helpful tips and as always, a printable recipe.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cookie Cups with Lemon Icing
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 18 mins
- Total Time: 48 mins
- Yield: 24+ 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Scoop this lemon poppyseed cookie batter into mini muffin liners for a treat that’s cookie-crisp outside and cakey- tender inside. Use this basic recipe to experiment with your own pairings, like orange zest and cinnamon or cocoa and espresso.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour (130 gm)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder (1 gm)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons sugar (100 gm)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter or vegan butter (113 gm), room temperature
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds (15gm)
- 1 large egg yolk or 1 tablespoon ground fax seeds + 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (15 ml)———————————————–
- For Lemon Icing (optional):
- 2 cups powdered sugar (300 gm)
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice (45 ml)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (1 ml)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted (15 gm)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 ° F. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable cooking spray and line with parchment or use a silpat.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer, combine sugar and zest and mix well, about one minute.
- Add butter and mix on medium until light and fluffy, about five minutes.
- Add egg yolk (or flax egg) and lemon juice and mix until smooth.
- On low speed, mix in flour mixture on third at a time just until flour disappears.
- Off the mixer, use a rubber spatula to fold in poppyseeds. Do not overmix.
- Use a small cookie scoop or tablespoon to scoop batter into 24 mini muffin liners.
- Bake 16- 18 minutes, until barely brown around edges and soft on top. Remove sheets to metal racks to cool completely before icing.
- To make lemon icing: Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and coconut oil and whip until thick, smooth and shiny. Spoon into a ziplock bag and snip a small corner to make designs on cookie cups. (See photos for more tips.)
Notes
adapted from Home. Made. Interest’s Lemon Thyme Shortbread Cookies and
Nora’s Lemon Lemon Cookies from the Cookbook Isa Does It.
by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
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