These Lemon Curd gooey Butter Cookies are soft and chewy, and have the perfect balance of sweet and tangy flavors. These cookies are easy to make and will melt in your mouth.
1/4cupunsalted butter, cold and cubed into tablespoons55g
Cream Cheese Gooey Butter Cookies
2& 1/2 cups all-purpose flour300g
1 ½teaspoonbaking powder
1/4teaspoonsalt
1/2cup unsalted butter, softened113g
8ouncescream cheese, at room temperature227g
1& 1/2 cups granulated sugar300g
2large eggs
1teaspoonvanilla extract
½tspalmond extract
1/3 to 1/2cuplemon curd
1cupconfectioners' sugaroptional
Instructions
Lemon Curd
In a small saucepan whisk egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until fully combined.
Add in the lemon zest and gradually add the lemon juice while mixing.
Heat on medium-low heat while stirring constantly with a wire whisk until the mixture thickens. At first, the mix will be runny, but after a few minutes, the mixture will start to bubble and thicken very quickly. Remove from the heat once it coats the back of a spoon.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add in the cold cubed butter. Mix until melted. The mixture will become very silky and glossy.
Optional: if your mix has large lumps or if you would like to get rid of the lemon zest bits, run it through a strainer before moving on to step 6.
Pour the lemon curd into a shallow heatproof container and let cool while preparing the cookies.
Cream Cheese Butter Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350℉ and line one or two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, add the cream cheese and butter and beat together with the paddle attachment until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix to combine until fully combined.
Gradually add in the sugar while the mixer is running at low-medium speed. Once incorporated, beat on medium-high for 1 minute until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides in between additions. Incorporate the vanilla and almond extracts.
On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix or the cookies will turn out tough. The dough will be sticky so make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to incorporate it all.
In a small bowl, add the powdered sugar to roll the cookies. Make sure you have room to roll the cookies inside of it.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough directly into the bowl of your powdered sugar and toss to coat.
Place the cookies in the tray 2-3 inches apart and using the back of a measuring spoon create a round indent in the center of each cookie.
Fill the indentations with lemon curd just until it reaches the top, the amount depends on the size of your cookie. Do not overfill or it will overflow when baking.
Bake for 12 minutes or more for larger cookies *see notes below, or until the cookies have set and look light golden (they will flatten a bit) and the lemon curd will look bubbly.
Remove the tray from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely. Bake the rest of the cookies with the remaining dough.
Let cookies cool in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes until the lemon curd is set.
Dust the cookies with powdered sugar being careful not to cover the center of the lemon curd.
Video
Notes
Watch the baking time for these as it will depend on the size of your cookies. I made a small batch of extra-large cookies approx. 1/4 cup of dough (fit 6 in the cookie sheet and used a large cookie scoop) and they took about 16 minutes to bake. I made another batch of smaller cookies with the mini ice cream scoop (about 1.5 tbsp) and they were good within 12 minutes. Depends also on your oven if it runs too hot it may be less time so watch them at the 12-minute mark.