Lemon Coconut Thumbprint Cookies
Another great holiday cookie to make. The way my turned out tasted sorta like mini lemon meringue pies. The recipe (take from Chatelaine, as always) calls for lemon curd. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any, so Helen and I improvised and made lemon curd completely from scratch. It was actually kind of fun but in the end, I can’t say whether lemon curd is any different from just buying the usual Sheriff Lemon Pie Filling power brand stuff. Honestly, it tastes exactly the same, but if you want to go from scratch on the curd, I’ll provide the recipe for that too. I’m not so sure whether it’s necessary to use the coconut either. See I couldn’t find the desiccated coconut the recipe asked for so I went with regular sugar coated coconut. It was kinda tough making it stick to the cookie… perhaps you can try mixing it in the batter itself. Oh and zesting lemons.. that’s always fun. I heard Martha Stewart can do it with a spoon, but we used a cheese grater.
This recipe makes about 35 cookies
- 1 cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature so it’s easier to mix
- 3/4 cup of icing sugar
- 21/4 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 1/3 cup of store bought lemon curd (we made our own.. recipe below)
- 1 cup of toasted desiccated coconut
Preheat oven to 325F (160C).
Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat them together with a wooden spoon – beat together until creamy.
In a seperate bowl, stir flour with salt (your dry ingredients).
Gradually stir into butter mixture just until combined.
Pinch off about 1 tbsp of dough and roll into a 1-inch ball.
Roll each ball into the cup of coconut so that it sticks to the outside of the dough.
Place on prepared sheet.
Repeat with the remaining dough until it’s all used, keeping them about 1 inch apart.
Using your finger, make an indent into each of the dough balls (thumbprint) and then place them in the center of the oven to bake for about 15 to 18 minutes (until the edges are a slight golden brown).
Let cookies cool for about a minute and put in about a teaspoon of the lemon curd in the center of each one.
And now the lemon curd recipe we used
Lemon Curd Recipe taken from joyofbaking.com
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)
- 1 tablespoon (4 grams) finely shredded lemon zest
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
- 4 tablespoons (56 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into small pieces
In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice until blended. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce) (160 degrees F or 71 degrees C). This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted. Add the lemon zest and let cool. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn’t form) and refrigerate for up to a week.
Makes 1 1/2 cups (360 ml).
If you want a lighter lemon curd whip 1/2 cup (120 ml) of heavy whipping cream and fold into the lemon curd.