Oh my, I’m so excited to share this cookie recipe with you! If you don’t have a bottle of limoncello in your home right now please go out and get one so you can make these cookies for Easter. Let me see if I can describe them to you, buttery, crunchy, refreshing, bright with an explosion of lemon flavor! The perfect cookie to welcome in spring.
Fortunate for me I still had a bottle of homemade limoncello that my daughter, her friend and her cousin made back in September. It was quite a project and fun for me to watch since I’ve never ever made it myself. Much planning went into it beforehand, she was on a mission to find the best organic lemons she could find, lemons free of chemicals and wax because the peels would be soaking in alcohol for weeks.
Peeling the yellow skins off the lemons take time and patience, it’s something you can’t rush because you have to be careful not to get any of the white pith beneath it otherwise your end result will be bitter, and you don’t want bitter limoncello. Their goal was to have it all completed and ready to sip for the holiday season. I’m happy to say they reached their goal.
As you can see even her dog was there for moral support!
The essential oils of the lemon peels infusing with the alcohol is such a dynamic combination, creating the most vibrant liqueur. I don’t want to sound like a bragging mother but this was the best limoncello I’ve ever had! It tasted so fresh with a wonderful smooth finish to it. After giving out some bottles as gifts they now have people begging them to make more. 
I hoarded one last bottle, it was hidden away in my freezer, making limoncello cookies was a good excuse to bring it out!
Of course I had to sip some while I was baking!
Look at that color, liquid gold, slightly thick and perfectly sweet. It screams blue skies and sunshine!
The limoncello is mixed right into the frosting so with every bite you take you’ll have a burst of lemony flavor. I promise you, these will be devoured if you make them for Easter, but you need to double or triple this recipe for sure!
The dough is shaped into a log then refrigerated for a while, sliced and baked. I tried to shape my log into an oval so they would look like eggs, or you could just cut them rounds.
Melt in your mouth goodness! Happy Easter to all!
- 1¼ cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- grated lemon zest of 1 lemon
- ICING
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 5 tablespoons limoncello
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon for garnish on frosting
- In a medium bowl, combine salt and flour. Set aside.
- With a mixer cream together butter and sugar until fluffy and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix until combined, then vanilla and the zest.
- With mixer on medium low, slowly add the flour/salt combo. Mix until the flour starts to incorporate. Don't over mix, cookie will be tough.
- roll dough into a 2"x 12" log, ( it will be soft at this point) or oval to resemble eggs. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. ( refrigeration is key, dough needs to be firm).
- When ready to bake remove wrap and slice dough into ⅓ thick cookies, place on parchment and bake at 350 for 13-17 minutes. You want the edges to become golden. Cool before icing on wire racks.
- FOR THE ICING:
- In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, limoncello and lemon juice. Stir until fluid but thick.
- Brush or dip cookies into frosting, garnish with zest and allow to dry about 10 minutes.
- Makes 24 cookies but I would double or triple this recipe!
- Recipe adapted from, In Sock Monkey Slippers
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
Hi Marie,
I have a big favor to ask. could you and would you share the recipe for the homemade limoncello?
In my opinion and that of a few friends, Ventra Limoncello is the best of store bought limoncello that we have tried.
Since it is not available in Florida and the shipping costs are now asttonomical, this is a perfect time to start making
our own. Fresh lemons are available during season from a few friends so we are ready to go. Hope you can provide
the recipe. Thank You.
Rene, In all honestly I don’t have it, it’s all my daughters doing, she researched and researched about Limoncello and came up with the recipe, if she ever does give it out I will let you know.
Marie, Thank you so much for the prompt reply. If your daughter ever gives out the limoncello recipe I will be first in line to get it. Thank you.
These cookies sound wonderful. My mouth is watering.
Wow! This is NOT NOT NOT your recipe! How fraudulent! I make this recipe every year from another blog, InSockMonkeySlippers, and when I went to find it I found this. How sad that you would violate their hard work. I will be notifying them immediately.
Dear Kelly you might have missed it but if you look at the very end of the recipe I acknowledged insockMonkeySlippers, it has always been there from day one, I would never violate anyone’s hard hard work. Please look more carefully before you accuse someone of being fraudulent.
My mouth is watering. Has you daughter consented to giving us her recipe? Sure would love it for the holidays.
Please???
Not yet Mary!
oooh, the good Everclear – I have to make my run from Florida to Chicago suburbs to get 95%… ours is only 55% and makes very weak limoncello. But we also have the recipe from a native Italian from the Capri/Napoli area famous for this stuff. You should see the size of the lemons here (southern Italy), almost always organic. To those who are going to make their own, do not use vodka. it just isn’t correct.
Haha! I have those exact same glasses, Marie! Limoncello cookies – on my list to make for sure!
Just looking at these cookies reminds me of Sorrento. Maybe it’s the bright yellow lemons 🙂 I used my homemade Limoncello to make these today and they turned out GREAT and DELICIOUS. I was able to veganize them without any problem. They’re going to be put on my “must bake” Christmas cookie list. Thank you SO much for sharing. I love your blog
Oh P.S. GUH-orgeous table linens! Just gorgeous!
Oh Marie, these cookies are bringing the sunshine of Italy into my kitchen just by their brightness on my computer screen! Your limoncello looks awesome! Dangerous stuff for me; I’d drink that whole bottle and fall flat on the floor . . . I’m the fun one at family get-togethers (if you can imagine). I’ll make these cookies VERY soon!
Hugs e baci!
Roz
Kids came over. I baked these. I asked if they wanted to bring home the rest? “What rest?” They said. We ate them!
I love your comment Claudia!
I have some limoncello … do you see where this is going? I also have plans to make my own (for – you know – 3 years). Buona Pasqua Marie – from my home to yours.
WOULD LOVE YOUR DAUGHTER’S LEMONCELLO RECIPE OR LET ME KNOW HOW TO FIND IT ON YOUR WEBSITE.
WANT TO TRY THE COOKIES.
Joanne, I’ll try to talk her into giving it out but for now you might have to go out and buy a bottle.
Not a baker I, but just might try this Marie. I have several bottles of homemade limoncello in my basement freezer, never got around to writing about the process. And it is so photogenic! Don’t know what held me back. Anyway, your cookies sound fabulous as usual, and such a terrific Easter treat. BTW ~ I just got home from Chicago last night, what’s up with that cold weather? Spring, baby, Spring. Had some wonderful meals, of course, Passover, but also enjoyed a Korean restaurant in Andersonville called Jin Ju, and Michelin-starred Boka, and remembering you and Courtney when we had lunch at Stephanie’s The Little Goat Diner.
Happy Easter my friend,
LL
I’m in the process of making these cookies right now and discovered two things. The cookie recipe calls for vanilla and lemon zest, but does not tell you when to add. That’s an easy to figure out, but I did almost forget to add them because it wasn’t in the written portion of recipe. Also, my dough was not firm enough to really roll into a log or oval. Do I have the correct consistency? I’m chilling for a bit and then rolling.
P.S. Made your Kale pesto yesterday and it was fabulous. I’m a big basil girl, but did not miss it one bit! Thank you!!
Alison the dough is going to be soft because the butter is at room temperature when you start out, but then just plop it on some plastic wrap and shape it into a log and as the recipe states chill for at least 2 hours. Glad you liked the kale pesto!
Just made a big, big bottle of limoncello so this recipe is just perfect – can’t wait to taste these cookies!
Wow… it’s looking quite lemony around here. LOVE it ALL!!! Popping in to say “Happy Easter” Marie, wishing you a blessed weekend.
What glorious limoncello! I get so much enjoyment from seeing group projects. Posts like this one speak of happy families and friends that get together, enjoy the company of one another and work together on projects that are fun. One of the best things about this one is each time you taste the limoncello, you’ll be reminded of the wonderful people who made it. I think I see a nascent yearly family project here! This is grand. The limoncello is beautiful, and the cookies are tantalizing.
Limoncello recipe please, please, please?! Thank you.
Gorgeous cookies!
My oh My oh My….I just can’t find words to describe how totally lovely that looks..and to actually have kept a bottle for so long without finishing it before now…how could you resist the temptation???! LOL!
Can you please post the recipe for the Limoncello, so we can make the cookies. They just look so yummy, and I have tried to make the Limoncello before but I had less than desirable results… Would like to try it again with a different recipe, one that has good results… Thanks.
Marie, I have a lemon tree in my backyard in AZ. We end up throwing out a lot of lemons. I’d love to make the limoncello. Would you supply me with a recipe to make it? Thanks, Becky
Marie – as you know, i have a ready supply of homemade limoncello from my son but i don’t think he went to the trouble of looking for organic lemons. That is ideal and i will definitely be making these beautiful cookies. They scream summer and i’dbe happy with just a bit of spring.
Holy Mackerel! These Look Good!!!
I wish I had some home made limoncello liquer, Marie, so I could make these fabulous looking cookies! They look so pretty!
I’m curious –when you daughter made the lemoncello what did she do with all the lemons after peeling them? Where do you find the grain alcohol?
Buona Pasqua!
We squeezed all the juice and froze it Pat.
The limoncello recipie would be helpful in order to make the cookies
I can’t wait to try these cookies. I am fortunate to have a sous vide that I use to make limoncello with. It was so hard waiting for weeks for it to be ready. Now it takes a couple of hours, so I guess I’ll be trying the cookies later this week. Thank you for all the delicious ideas that you share.
Your cookies look delicious—makes my mouth water just thinking a bout them!! How about posting your daughter’s recipe for limoncello, so we can make both???
This is the most delicious, beautiful spring post! Especially needed as winter does not seem to want to depart this year!
These cookies look wonderful. I’ll definitely be making them; thank you.
I have been hoarding some limoncello given to be in Massa Lubrense by a family I visited and made from femminiello lemons. It sits in the freezer waiting for those special times. These cookies would fit the bill.