Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
These Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies are made with a lemon packed poppy seed cookie dough, filled with a zesty homemade Lemon Curd and are topped with a lemon almond poppy seed glaze! These cookies are soft, bursting with fresh lemon flavor and have the perfect balance of tart and sweet.
These copycat Crumbl lemon poppy seed cookies remind me so much of my Lemon Poppy Seed Scones, and I love having a delicious lemon cookie version! If you love all things lemon poppy seed, then you will swoon over my Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake, Easy Lemon Poppy Seed Bread and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Sour Cream!
Why This Recipe Works
- Cookies with lemon curd. These lemon curd cookies are way better than the Crumbl lemon poppy seed cookies! For one thing, the Crumbl cookie I got at the bakery didn’t even have the curd inside! I was so disappointed. You won’t have that problem with these cookies! Each of the lemon poppyseed cookies is stuffed with 1/2 tablespoon of delicious lemon curd!
- Perfect amount of lemon flavors. You will love how prominent the lemon flavor is in these lemon curd cookies! The cookie dough has fresh lemon zest, fresh lemon juice and a touch of lemon extract — to really bump up the flavor without compromising on the fresh lemon flavors. The lemon curd filling kicks up the lemon flavor right when you take a bite! And top that off with the lemon almond glaze and, lemon lovers, get ready!
Ingredient Notes
- Unsalted Butter: The butter for the cookies should be at room temperature. The butter for the glaze should be melted. If using salted butter, reduce the salt in the recipe by 1/4 tsp.
- Fresh Lemon Juice & Zest: You’ll need real lemons for the zest so just use the fresh lemon juice too!
- Lemon Extract: The added lemon extract will enhance the natural and fresh lemon flavor even more!
- All-Purpose Flour: This is a soft dough so you need the right amount of flour to reduce over spreading in the oven.
- Poppy Seeds: To make the poppy seeds prominent, they are in the lemon cookie base and in the lemon almond poppy seed glaze.
- Homemade Lemon Curd: You can use store bought lemon curd if you’d like. This homemade lemon curd recipe is amazing though! It will be totally worth it, I promise!
- Almond Extract: The almond poppy seed glaze is amazing! It’s the perfect complement to the lemon flavor. You will love it!
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Freeze lemon curd dollops. This is optional. Using 1/2 tablespoon, portion the lemon curd onto a plate lined with wax paper. Freeze until chilled. The curd won’t get hard, but it will be chilled, making it easier to cover in cookie dough.
- Make the lemon poppy seed cookie dough. Cream the butter, granulated sugar, and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and the lemon juice. Mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and the poppy seeds. Mix until just combined.
- Portion into balls. Using a 1/4 cup, portion the dough into balls. Take a 1 Tablespoon and press into the center of the balls to make an indentation for the lemon curd.
- Fill with lemon curd. Place a dollop of the chilled lemon curd in each cookie dough ball. Carefully cover the curd completely with the dough. Roll into a ball again.
- Bake. Place 6 lemon curd cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 365°F for 12-13 minutes or until the edges are set. Remove and let the lemon curd cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the lemon poppy seed glaze. Add the powdered sugar, melted butter, lemon juice, milk, almond extract and poppy seeds to a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle lemon poppy seed cookies with the lemon almond glaze. Using a spoon, drizzle the glaze on top of each slightly warm cookie. Enjoy!
Recipe Tips
When measuring flour, don’t pack it in by settling the flour and scraping it. Scoop the flour and level it off. The amount of flour is important because it can be the difference between over spreading in the oven!
Adding poppy seeds to the cookies with lemon curd and the glaze gives a pretty poppy seed look to each element!
Mixing the lemon zest in with the butter and sugar will cause the lemon zest to extract more of its flavor. If you really want to extract the lemon flavor, add the sugar and zest to a bowl and rub them together with your fingers. Then add the lemon sugar to the stand mixer bowl with the butter and commence creaming them together.
If you roll your lemons around a little on the counter it will help extract the juice a little, making them easier to juice. You can also microwave them for 10 seconds to help get more juice out of them!
The Homemade Lemon Curd won’t harden when placed in the freezer. It will just be a little less gooey. I haven’t tried with store bought lemon curd, so that may be different. You can skip the chilling step if you’d rather spoon the curd straight into the cookies. Just note that working with chilled lemon curd will be much easier when it comes to pulling the dough around it.
Place a large cookie sheet under the cooling rack if you are going to drizzle the glaze on the cookies while they are still resting there. This will make clean up much easier!
Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing
Store leftover Crumbl lemon poppy seed cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. The cookies need to be stored in the fridge due to the glaze and the lemon curd.
When I want another of these soft lemon poppy seed cookies, I’ll pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up again.
Note: The lemon curd in the cookies will soak into the cookie over time (which isn’t bad! it makes for an even more tender cookie). If you are enjoying a cookie a day or two later, don’t be surprised if you don’t have the oozing lemon curd when you bite into it. All the flavor and texture of the curd is still there, just absorbed into the cookies!
To freeze the cookies, let cool completely and then flash freeze to set the glaze. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months. Remove and let thaw in the fridge overnight.
To freeze the dough, fill with the lemon curd and completely cover it with the cookie dough. Flash freeze the dough balls until firm. Transfer to a ziplock bag or airtight container. Freeze for up to 2 months. Remove and bake from frozen, adding a few minutes onto the bake time. You can also thaw the dough balls and bake regularly.
If you have additional storing and freezing questions, see my Freezing Cookie Dough and Freezing Cookies posts!
Recipe FAQs
If you made the homemade lemon curd, it won’t freeze. It will just get chilled, making it easier to work with. I haven’t tried freezing store bought lemon curd, so I’m not sure if it gets firm or not.
It probably wasn’t fully covered in the cookie dough. Be sure to gently wrap the cookie dough around the glob of lemon curd. If you have any leftover cookie dough, you can add that to cover any patches of lemon curd if needed. Freezing the curd so it’s at least chilled can help make this easier.
This is a difficult recipe to get the cookie baked perfectly. You can’t do a toothpick test per se because of the lemon curd inside. The best way to perfectly bake the cookies is to pull them out when the edges of the cookies are set. Don’t worry, the cookies will still continue to bake from residual heat on the baking sheet as they cool.
Yes you can! I also have a homemade Lemon Curd Recipe you can use if you’d like.
More Lemon Desserts
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Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
Ingredients
Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter - at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour - 528 grams
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- 1/2 cup lemon curd - for filling each cookie dough ball (can use homemade or store bought)
Lemon Almond Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons butter - melted
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
Instructions
- Optional: Portion lemon curd into ½ tablespoon sized balls. Place on a wax paper lined plate and freeze until chilled. Note: if using my homemade lemon curd recipe, the lemon curd doesn’t actually harden. It gets a little less gooey but that’s it. I can’t speak to store bought lemon curd, you can try freezing it, but you can also just spoon the curd straight way into the cookies. So if you want, this step can be skipped. But I find it helpful to have the curd less gooey.
- Make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 365°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and lemon juice and mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. Mix to combine.
- Portion the dough into ¼ cup sized balls. Using a tablespoon measuring spoon, press and make an indent in each ball (this is where we’ll add the lemon curd).
- Place a ½ tablespoon of lemon curd in the center of each cookie dough ball, and carefully wrap the cookie dough around the curd. Roll up into a ball again.
- Place 6 dough balls on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes, until the edges are set. Remove from the oven and let cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Make the lemon almond glaze. Whisk the powdered sugar, lemon juice, butter, almond extract, and poppy seeds until smooth.
- Use a pastry brush or a spoon and drizzle the glaze overtop of each slightly warm cookie. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator. When I want another cookie I'll pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up again. So good!
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14 Comments on “Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies”
This recipe was so good, everything I hoped it would be. It tastes just like Crumbl cookie. The only problem I had with it was that some of the lemon curd seeped out before the cookie was fully cooked, despite chilling the dough and curd beforehand. I will tweak it a bit and try again, still very good!
So glad you loved it, Jasmine! Just make sure you’ve completely covered the curd with the cookie dough so you don’t get any leakage. Thanks for leaving a review!
Can the dough be frozen?
Hi Meredith! Yes you can freeze the dough. Since this dough is filled with a lemon curd, you’ll want to follow the instructions until the balls are ready to be baked, then flash freeze them on a tray or plate in the freezer and transfer to a freezer-safe bag or container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Remove and bake from frozen (you’ll need to add a minute or two on the bake time since they were baked from frozen). Let me know if you have any other questions!
This was way too sweet- the frosting asks for 2 cups powered sugar and it was too much. The cookie was also really wet. The flavor was there but I would definitely tone down the sugar- it was wayyyyyyy too much. Too sweet
Really want to try these, but I’m allergic to almonds! Can I substitute vanilla extract? Thank you!!
Yes you can, but it will change the taste of the cookie quite drastically.
Okay, thank you!!
Lemon lover here and these were so good! I used a homemade lemon curd, which actually froze in the freezer. It was super helpful to have it frozen, I tried putting it in when it was a little melted and it was def more difficult. Cookies were soft and melted in your mouth. Oh, I also cut the poppy seed amount in half, since I’m not a huge fan of too many and it was great. Thanks for the recipe!
Ever make your cookies with a gluten free flour blend? Celiac house here and sometimes it messes with the texture of things
How much milk?? Urgent
Sorry, no milk! You can add a teaspoon or so if you want the glaze to be a runnier consistency, but I didn’t need it.
Oh my gosh! This recipe was to die for! I am a lemon lover to begin with and this will be my most favorite cookie from here on out! The cookie was on point delicious! The Lemon Curd recipe was amazing as well. I could eat that alone. It will be a go to for my Cream Scones in the future. Follow the recipe as written and you won’t be disappointment. I had enough curd to make a second recipe. These are addicting.
Got a late night pregnancy craving and HAD to make these! Because it was so late, I opted to try store bought lemon curd. I used the brand Wilkin & Sons Tiptree Lemon Curd and it hardened just fine in the freezer. Well, it didn’t get hard, but was less runny like the recipe describes.
The cookie flavor is heaven sent. I could be just as happy eating the dough on these! They have a true lemon flavor and was everything I was craving! My dad said they were the best cookies I’ve ever made… and I make a lot of delicious cookies thanks to Salt and Baker! The almond poppy glaze ties all the flavors together. Make them!!