Slice-and-Bake Lemon Shortbread

The recipe was easy and delicious. However due to comments,I cut the flour to 2 cups. My family loved the cookies. Just the right amount of lemon flavor. BJ

These turned out great, following the modified instructions above. We sprinkled some with turbinado sugar and dipped the rest in dark chocolate. They were a hit both ways. We really like the dense, rich flavor of shortbread, and living in Florida, I love to use our fresh winter citrus. Win all around.

Worst recipe ever! Don't waste your time or ingredients. I was not able to slice cookies because they were so crumbly. I threw it all away.

Untraditionally, maybe add an egg? This resipe is identical to my treasured recipe for Spritz, with the use of almond flavoring instead of vanilla and lemon, and with one egg for the exact same amount of butter and flour.

Horrible, had to throw the batter out! Don't waste your time. Try an old reliable shortbread recipe, add lemon zest and walnuts. Total waste of time. Why bother with a recipe that requires so much trial and error to "FIX". Dough was impossible to stick together before and after fridge. Just finished cleaning up and throwing out the dough. BIG Disappointment RS - all they do is fall to crumbs. On 12/1/13 they say they tweaked the recipe after all the bad comments - well guess what - it is still the same on 12/20? Hello!

Impossible to cut without it falling apart. Waste of my time and money, since I had to stop and purchase cookies to bring to the party.

As others have stated, this recipe is definitely off with the flour and butter amounts. I ended up throwing away what I was able to cut off of the log and still keep it's shape. If the flour amount is correct, maybe you should show it as professional bakers would, by weight and not by volume. I still think the amounts will be off.

The flour to butter ratio is off. Add another half cup (1 stick)of butter. Most shortbread recipes have roughly a half cup of butter per cup of flour. It'll hold its shape and make a very tender crumbed cookie. No finesse or flour technique required.

Even using the flour technique below this recipe did not work. The dough could be compressed in the palm of my hand when made but after refrigerating it was very crumbly and almost impossible to slide. Have used other RS recipes which worked well - perhaps this one requires too much finesse. Very disappointing. Baker beware!

Very disappointing. It was so crumbly it fell apart when being cut and was almost impossible to transfer to the cookie sheet. I baked them anyway and they have a nice flavor but are cracked, and unappealing to look at.. not for the Christmas cookie tray:(

I thought this was everything a shortbread should be.I didn't use quite three cups of flour.After I creamed the butter & sugar in my stand mixer I just added the flour slowly til it looked right.Put it on parchment and rolled it into a log shape with the parchment. I chilled it in the fridge overnite and I also sliced it a little thinner.Watch the baking time if you slice thinner.I'm going to try it with different flavors.

I still found this to be dry! They didn't look pretty but tasted great.

Thanks everyone for the heads-up. We've retested the recipe in the RS kitchen and tweaked the recipe slightly. You do need 3 cups of flour but you should measure it by spooning the flour into your measuring cup (don't tamp it down). Then use the edge of a knife to slide off and level any excess. (If you scoop the flour with your measuring cup from the bag it'll become compacted and you'll get too much.) When you add the flour you should mix until it is just incorporated. The dough will be crumbly but will come together when you squeeze it with your hands. Our web team will be incorporating these changes shortly. Happy baking!

This recipe was a disaster. My error: I didn't read the readers' comments.

if you used 3 cups of flour, it would definitely be very dry. If you already made the dough you could add 1/2 a stick of butter and some lemon juice, like I did when I made it with 3 cups of flour. It was fine and they turned out good.

it seams to be dry

I think these were easy and oh so good! I agree that 2 cups of flour was the best thing to do. I also added some chopped fresh rosemary to the dough....mmmmm one of my favs!!

Please do not the 'ratings' deter you from trying this recipe. Most cursors 'wander' up to the stars and before you know it, you've clicked on a rating and it is usually is just accidental. I think the one reviewer is correct.....2 cups of flour is sufficient. There is NO WAY that butter, sugar and some flour can equal a bad cookie! These are melt-in-your-mouth wonderful!

it is a real shame when people don't comment on why they don't like a recipe. I was all set to try this one, but seeing the stars rating, I think I will pass and look elsewhere for a good cookie recipe for my cookie exchange.

Hello - I am wondering "how" I am able to view others' comments about this cookie?