These lemon meringue pie cookies are a cookie spin on a classic dessert – the lemon meringue pie. They begin with the most delicious, buttery shortbread cookie which is then topped with lemon curd and sweet meringue. They’re sweet, tart, rich and buttery and only use 6 ingredients!
They have the most wonderful texture too with the cookie being crisp and crumbly around the edge but just the slightest bit chewy in the middle under that curd. The lemon curd and meringue both offer a lovely soft texture to complete the whole thing.
And yes, I really do recommend making your lemon curd from scratch because it’s quick, easy and worlds above any store bought version I’ve ever found. You could also swap it for lime curd, orange curd, pineapple curd or passionfruit curd or even jam.
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Ingredients & substitutions
It’s quite unbelievable that these cookies use just 6 ingredients. Even if, and I do recommend it, you make your lemon curd from scratch, it only needs 1 more ingredient. Three layers of deliciousness for 6-7 ingredients? Yes and please!
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredient quantities and instructions.
- Flour: Just plain flour / all-purpose flour.
- Sugar: I like to use caster sugar here. It’s just white granulated sugar processed until a little finer. It’s still granular, and definitely don’t use powdered sugar / icing sugar in its place.
- Butter: Just unsalted butter for this one.
- Lemon curd: The lemon curd is soft, tangy, bright and so delicious. If you’ve never tried making your own, do yourself a favour. It’s so easy. Of course, these lemon meringue pie cookies will work with store-bought but I’ve never found one that tastes as good as homemade. Lemon curd is a mixture of eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and butter.
- Eggs: You’ll just need the egg whites for the meringue but if you’re making the lemon curd as well, you’ll use a couple of the egg yolks there. You could also save them to make a custard or creme brulee.
Feel free to add a touch of vanilla extract to your cookie dough (mix it with the melted butter portion) if you want to add some of that warming flavour to your cookies.
How to make lemon meringue pie cookies
These lemon meringue cookies are very simple to make though there are a few steps. The cookie itself takes just minutes. The cookie dough is then pressed into muffin pans, one by one and filled with lemon curd. Finally, that meringue takes a few minutes on the stove then it gets beaten until smooth, glossy and delicious.
You can also fill these with jam like these raspberry crumble cookies.
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredient quantities and instructions.
1. Make the cookie dough
Start by whisking together the dry ingredients, then blend cold butter in with your fingertips.
Add a little melted butter and mix, swapping to your hands until it’s clumping.
2. Shape and fill the cookies
Divide the dough into 10 portions, rolling each into a ball as you go. I find about 2 Aussie tablespoons is the right amount so they’re roughly golf ball sized. Press each one into the holes of a jumbo muffin pan making sure you have a well in the centre of each one and a little ridge around the perimeter.
Lemon meringue cookies need lemon curd so add a good heaped tablespoon full of lemon curd to the well in the centre of each cookie dough portion.
3. Make the meringue
For the icing on the cookie, start by whisking together sugar and egg whites in a bowl then stir it with the whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until the sugar is dissolved and it reaches 70C/160F on a digital thermometer (it will still be very liquid at this point). You don’t need to whisk to aerate the egg whites at this point, just heat them to pasteurise and to dissolve the sugar.
4. Whip the meringue
These lemon meringue cookies are topped with Swiss meringue. Italian meringue will work too if you prefer it.
Now whip the meringue with a hand beater or using the whisk attachment and your stand mixer until it’s thick, glossy and reaches stiff peaks.
5. Top the cookies
You can either spoon/spread the meringue onto the top of your cooled cookies or pipe it. It really doesn’t matter. Dollops of meringue, swirled with a spoon can be just as pretty as using your favourite piping tips to create gorgeous patterns too. I used two different piping tips for the ones shown here.
You can also be very generous with the meringue. In the photos shown, I’ve used about ⅔ of the full batch of meringue so you can pile them up higher than this. If you have some leftover, you can just pipe them onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake them for 40-45 minutes at 130°C/265°F.
Now, grab your kitchen torch and toast the meringue to your hearts content. It only takes a minute and looks so gorgeous.
Tips and tricks
- Don’t overmix the cookie dough once you get your hands in there. You only want it to be able to clump together. Once it’s pressed into the tin and baked it will hold lovely.
- While you could possibly get 12 out of this recipe, don’t be tempted to make the cookie dough too thin as it’s a crumbly cookie. Too thin and it might break when you try to move them around.
- Use a digital thermometer when making the meringue so that you know the egg whites are pasteurised, making them safe to eat.
Storage
These lemon meringue pie cookies can be stored at room temperature or a cool spot like the pantry, in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Don’t store them in the fridge.
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Ingredients
- 195 g plain flour (all purpose flour) (1 1½ cups / ~6 ¾oz)
- ½ cup caster sugar (superfine sugar) (100g / 3 ½oz)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 150 g unsalted butter cold (divided 28g:122g / 1oz:~4¼oz)
- 1 cup lemon curd (homemade best) (300g/ 10 ½oz)
FOR THE NO BAKE MERINGUE
- 3 egg whites room temp
- ¾ cup caster sugar (superfine sugar) (150g / ~5¼oz)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Saucepan
- 2 6 hole jumbo muffin pans
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan forced) / 350F. Grease and flour the holes of two 6 hole jumbo muffin pans. If you only have one, you’ll need to wait for the first batch to cool before removing them and reusing the pan or make smaller ones in a regular muffin pan.
- Melt 28g (roughly 1 oz/2 Tbsp) of the butter, until just melted and set aside to cool slightly
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.
- Use the large side of a box grater to grate in the remaining cold butter, then gently work it into the flour mixture with your fingertips or a pastry blender, until it looks a bit like breadcrumbs and is well distributed. You don’t need the butter to be completely worked in, just in very small pieces.
- Stir in the melted butter with a fork and your hands until well distributed and you can squeeze together a clump in your hand. It will still be a crumbly mixture.
- Divide the mixture into about 10 portions, rolling each into a ball as you go (each one will be around 2 tablespoons (notes 1).
- Press each ball of dough into the well of a muffin pan, forming a low edge around the outside with a well in the centre.
- Spoon 1 heaped tablespoon (5-6tsp, notes 1) of lemon curd into each hole.
- Bake for 20 minutes then set aside to cool for at least 20 minutes in the pan.
- Once cooled, gently press on the edge of each one and turn it to make sure it’s loose and free of the pan. Use a thin knife or palette knife to gently lift the edge and help to lift the cookies out. Transfer them to a wire cooling rack.
- Place the egg whites and sugar in a large heatproof bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) set over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the base is not touching the water). Stir the mixture with a hand whisk (you don’t need to whisk to whip them) until the sugar has completely dissolved (the temperature should reach 70C / 160F on a thermometer to be pasteurized).
- Remove the bowl from the saucepan and whisk on medium-high speed with a hand beater or using the stand mixer (with whisk attachment) for 4-5 minutes until thick and glossy and until the bowl is no longer hot.
- Pipe the meringue or add dollops of meringue onto the top of your cookies.Tip: You can be quite generous with the meringue topping as there is plenty but if you have some leftover, just pipe shapes onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake at 130°C/265°F for 40-45 minutes.
- Scorch the top of the meringue cookies with a kitchen blow torch.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- You can use other curds too like lime curd, orange curd, pineapple curd or passionfruit curd. Jams will work too.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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