The citrus flavour of yuzu combines with buttery shortbread in these easy (and addictive) yuzu cookies.
These yuzu shortbread cookies are a dream.
Combining the simplicity of shortbread with the unique flavour profile of yuzu, they taste gourmet with minimal effort required.
Using a KitchenAid® stand mixer makes the process even easier. And with just 20 minutes of prep and a half-hour of baking time, you'll have delicious homemade cookies to rival a professional bakery.
Flavour Profile
🍋 Citrusy
🍯 Sweet
🧈 Buttery
Why We Love It
- Unique: Adding yuzu takes a classic shortbread recipe to the next level. It’s an unexpected flavour pairing that works amazingly well together.
- Simple: This recipe is super simple. Simply add all the ingredients into your mixing bowl, mix and bake.
- Quick: Not only are these cookies easy to make, but they can also be whipped up relatively quickly. With minimal prep and only 30 minutes baking time, you can bake your cookies and enjoy them within the same afternoon.
Meet the Recipe Developer
KitchenAid’s colourful, high-quality products — from stand mixers and espresso machines, to food processors and blenders — are found in homes across the globe, cherished for their reliability and the way they connect people through food and tradition. Rooted in a passion for cooking, KitchenAid celebrates how food brings loved ones together, evoking memories and creating lasting moments, all while cooking from the heart.
Test Kitchen Notes
- Make sure your butter is room temperature before you start making these cookies. If your butter is too cold, it won’t cream with the other ingredients, leading to overly dense shortbread.
- Cornstarch is a great addition to this recipe, making for a delicate texture by lowering the overall protein content of the flour blend.
- Letting your baked cookies sit for five minutes before cutting into rectangles allows them to cool enough, while still keeping them soft enough to cut into a nice shape. Definitely set a timer, as you don’t want your shortbread to cool too much before you cut it.
A Note from KitchenAid
Can’t find yuzu? Make lemon shortbread instead. You can easily substitute an equal amount of lemon juice for the yuzu juice in the cookies and the glaze if desired.
Ingredients and Substitutions
For the shortbread
- Sugar: White, granulated sugar works best in this recipe. You can use either table sugar or caster sugar, but we don’t recommend swapping white sugar for brown sugar.
- Lemon zest: Lemon zest helps bring out the citrus flavour of the yuzu juice in these cookies. If you can find yuzu fruit, you could also use yuzu zest here instead of lemon zest. You can also omit the zest altogether if you prefer — but we recommend leaving it in for extra flavour.
- Salted butter: Salted butter yields a beautiful, slightly salty flavour to these cookies — don’t worry, you can’t taste the salt, it just deepens the other flavours. If you prefer, you can use unsalted butter instead, but it will alter the overall flavour of the cookies slightly.
- Egg yolk: Don’t leave this out, as it helps bind everything together. Be sure to separate the yolk from the whites, leaving the whites out of this recipe.
- Yuzu juice: This is where you get the bulk of the yuzu flavour. Don’t skip it!
- All-purpose flour: This is the basis of these cookies. Use plain all-purpose flour (as opposed to self-rising).
- Powdered sugar: Powdered sugar helps sweeten these cookies without adding too much moisture. We don’t recommend substituting it.
- Cornstarch: This helps achieve the classic shortbread texture. In Australia, you might also find that this comes in a box and is called cornflour. It should be a light, soft white powder — unlike cornmeal, which is grainy and yellow.
- Salt: A pinch of salt goes a long way in rounding out the flavours of these cookies. Leave it out if you prefer.
For the glaze
- Powdered sugar: This is essential to make a glaze. Powdered sugar is also called icing sugar in Australia — whether it’s labelled ‘powdered sugar’ or ‘icing sugar’, it will work. Don’t substitute this for other sugars, as it will not work.
- Yuzu juice: Yuzu juice gives the glaze a lovely yuzu flavour. Don’t skip it!
FAQ
Yuzu is bright and tangy like a lemon, but with softer edges. While it’s still citrusy, its flavour is a little more floral and less sharp, making it perfect for baking.
Like lemon and lime, yuzu isn’t typically eaten on its own. Instead, its zest and juice are used in sauces, dressings and drinks.
Yuzu juice can be found at some Asian grocery stores and online. A few online retailers selling yuzu juice include Mountain Yuzu, Ichiba Junction and YUZUCO.
📖 Recipe
Easy and Delicious Yuzu Cookies
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 18 cookies 1x
Description
The citrus flavour of yuzu combines with buttery shortbread in these easy (and addictive) yuzu cookies.
Ingredients
For Shortbread
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp (6 g) lemon zest, plus additional zest for garnish if desired
- 1 cup (227 g) salted butter, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk from 1 large egg
- 2 tsp (10 g) yuzu juice
- 2 ½ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (60 g) powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp (16 g) cornstarch
- ¼ (1 g) teaspoon salt
For Glaze
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoon (15-30 g) yuzu juice
Instructions
For Shortbread
- Preheat the oven to 150°C (300Fº).
- Add sugar and lemon zest to the Stand Mixer bowl fitted with Flat Beater Accessory. Turn to speed 2 to infuse sugar with lemon oils for 1 minute.
- Add butter to sugar and cream together on speed 4 for 2-3 minutes. Turn down to speed 2 and add egg yolk and yuzu juice and mix for an additional 30 seconds.
- Turn mixer to speed 1 and add flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt. Mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Scrape dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and pat into rectangular shape 1 cm (½-inch) thick. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden brown.
- Let cool for 5 minutes then use a bench scraper to cut into rectangles.
For Glaze
- To make glaze, in a clean Stand Mixer bowl fitted with Whisk Accessory, add powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon yuzu juice. Turn to speed 1 and mix until smooth. Scrape sides of bowl if needed and add additional yuzu juice 1 teaspoon at a time if thinner texture is desired.
- Drizzle glaze over cooled shortbread cookies, sprinkle with lemon zest to garnish.
Notes
Pro Tip: You can easily substitute an equal amount of lemon juice for the yuzu juice in the cookies and the glaze if desired.
To make the glaze more yellow, add a tiny drop of yellow food colouring.
To create scalloped edges (like in the photograph), use a scalloped rectangular cookie cutter (example here).
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30-35 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Australian
Share Your Thoughts