Buttery Lemon Tea Cakes

These lemon tea cakes are light, buttery, and have the perfect amount of sweetness. It's not a super strong punch of lemon, but just enough to dance on the back of your tongue with each bite.

Ingredients for lemon tea cakes

These cookies are so simple to make. Not only because the dough doesn't need to be chilled, but especially because they only have 6 ingredients! If you want to make a batch of these, here's what you'll need.

• All-purpose flour

• Powdered sugar

• Unsalted butter

• Vanilla extract

• Salt

• Lemon zest

Why I love these cookies

These cookies are extra, super special to me. Every year, my Grandma and I have a cookie day, which is basically is a 10-12 hour long day of baking all of the holiday goodies. And every year, we make an old family recipe called "Russian Tea Cakes". They're essentially a rolled shortbread that requires no chilling, and they're rolled in powdered sugar once baked. My grandma loves these cookies and LOVES lemon, so I thought that putting a twist on these cookies would be super fun!

Aside from the sentimental value, they are just so easy and quick to make! They're great on their own, or with a cup of tea or coffee in the morning.

Tips for the best lemon tea cakes

• Don't pull the cookies out too early. You want to make sure that these cookies are baked all the way through, so they have a great firm and crispy bite once cooled. You want to make sure that the bottoms are a nice golden brown color, and that the tops are maaaybe just starting to turn a slight golden color.

• If you want more lemon flavor, add more lemon zest or a little lemon extract. Normally, I would say to definitely add lemon juice to things to get a great lemon flavor. However, you don't want to add too much moisture to these cookies, because you don't want them to spread! So adding a little more lemon zest should do just the trick.

Don't like lemon?

Not a fan of lemon? No problem! You can simply leave out the lemon zest, for a great, buttery tea cake. You can also replace it with another flavor or add-in like almond extract, orange zest, or some chopped nuts!