Crisp and crumbly Meyer Lemon Cookies are buttery, citrusy, and slightly sweet with a lovely hint of Meyer lemon zest. These slice-and-bake treats are the perfect sable cookie for tea time!
Although I don’t crave for sweets as much as when I was younger, when Meyer lemons are in season, I get excited to make Meyer lemon sweets. These deep golden winter citrus are such a special treat that it’s too hard to pass on. My family and I especially love Meyer Lemon Chiffon Cake which I make several times every season. I also love these crispy, crumbly, buttery sables, Meyer Lemon Cookies (マイヤーレモンサブレ).
Watch How to Make Meyer Lemon Cookies (Sables)
Watch Meyer Lemon Cookies video on YouTube
Get Meyer Lemons for Meyer Lemon Cookies
What is Meyer Lemon?
Meyer lemons are smaller and rounder, and less acidic and sweeter than standard lemons. Their rind has a floral fragrance when zested. It’s known as a cross between lemon and mandarin oranges (also called tangerines).
Do you have these lemons in your country? I had never seen or tasted this type of lemon while growing up in Japan. I recently learned that Meyer lemons were first introduced in the U.S. from China in the early 20th century. Isn’t it surprising to learn that the fruit originated from the East? It’s easy to make the assumption that they are of European origin when they bear a western name. As a matter of fact, the lemons actually get their name from Frank Meyer, who was a United States Department of Agriculture explorer who traveled to Asia to collect new plant species.
When is Meyer Lemon Season?
These lemons are usually available from late November to May in California. My friend who brought these Meyer lemons for me said she had been harvesting a lot of fruits in her backyard this past January. What a lovely sight it must have been to see a blooming Meyer lemon tree in the backyard, especially in the depths of winter!
Are These Cookies or Sablés?
If you were wondering the question, I’m happy we’re on the same page. Yes, these are SABLES! A sablé is a classic French butter cookie originating from Normandy region. Sable in French translates to ‘sand’ as the texture of these cookies are crumbly and melt in your mouth.
My original intention was to name this recipe Meyer Lemon Sablés, but the term is not commonly known in the U.S. So I named it simply Meyer Lemon Cookies, hoping that more people will search this term.
In Japan, sables are a much more popular type of cookies than American-style cookies probably due to the influence from the UK and European countries in our history. I grew up eating different kinds of sables, and I’ve shared some of my favorite sables using unique Japanese flavors such as cherry blossom, matcha, and black sesame flavors (Browse JOC cookie recipes).
Meyer Lemon Cookies – Substitute Suggestions:
Meyer Lemon Zest: To replace the zest of 1 Meyer lemon, simply swap in the zest of 1/2 a tangerine and 1/2 a regular lemon.
Cake Flour: I use King Arthur’s cake flour for convenience, but you can make cake flour by mixing all-purpose flour and cornstarch. For 1 cup cake flour, prepare 1 cup all-purpose flour, then take away 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and replace with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Be sure to sift the flour to distribute the cornstarch well before using it in your cake batter.
If you’re thinking to try out these darling citrus for the first time, grab them from your winter markets or grocery stores while they are still in season and make these Meyer lemon cookies! The buttery cookies make a bright company for Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, tea break or someone you know who is in need of a little cheer to get over the winter blues.
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Meyer Lemon Cookies (Sables)
Ingredients
- 4 oz unsalted butter (8 Tbsp, 1 stick; at room temperature)
- 3½ Tbsp confectioners’ sugar (1 oz)
- 1 cup cake flour (weigh your ingredients; click the Metric button for measurements; or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off; you can make homemade cake flour)
- 1.4 oz almond flour/meal (⅓ cup + 2 tsp; blanched)
- 3 Meyer lemons (for the zest only)
- 2 tsp whole milk
- 2 Tbsp white sparkling sugar (its large grains do not melt and disappear, and it has a nice look and crunch; if you can‘t find it, substitute granulated sugar)
Instructions
To Make Dough
- Gather all the ingredients. I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.
- Cut 4 oz unsalted butter into smaller pieces (so that they will soften faster). It’s important to soften (not melt) the butter before we start.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
- Add 3½ Tbsp confectioners’ sugar and blend until soft and light. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Sift 1 cup cake flour and 1.4 oz almond flour/meal (⅓ cup + 2 tsp) into the bowl.
- Add the zest from 3 Meyer lemons. Make sure you just zest the yellow peel, not the pith (white bitter part).
- Add 2 tsp whole milk and mix all together with the silicone spatula.
- At the beginning, the dough is crumbly, but it eventually will come together into a ball.
- Because the dough will be still too soft to roll into a log shape, take out the dough from the bowl and wrap with plastic wrap. Keep in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Take out the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap. Shape the dough into a cylinder, about 1½ inches (4 cm) in diameter.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours. Optional: you can place the dough on a bed of rice while chilling. It helps to keep the dough in nice cylindrical shape, so your cookie slices won’t be flat on one side.
To Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the oven temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking liner.
- Take out the cookie log (dough) from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. In a tray that fits the cookie dough, sprinkle 2 Tbsp white sparkling sugar on the log. Roll the cookie log on the sparkling sugar until the log is covered.
- The sugar should stick without any issue. However, before rolling, you could also wrap the dough with a damp paper towel so that the dough will be slightly wet or brush egg wash on the dough (the traditional method).
- With a sharp knife, slice the dough into rounds ⅓ inch (7 mm) thick. Place them on the baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of space between the cookies.
- Lower the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC) and bake the cookies for about 25 minutes, or until the edge of the cookies start to get golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, carefully transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
To Store
- If you pack the cookies in an airtight container, they will keep for at least 4 days. You can also freeze the unbaked log of dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 months. Let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting and baking. Do not let the dough fully defrost.
Notes
- Fluff up the flour several times with a spoon.
- Using the spoon, sprinkle the flour into your dry measuring cup (the one that measures exactly a cup at the top).
- Scrape off the excess with a knife.
When you modify the recipe for more cookies the eg. butter 113 g will change but the conversion to (oz or stick) does not change. This applies to the pop up for printing the recipe. If I change it to 32 cookies 226 g shows but still shows 4 oz or 1 stick.
Hi Joyce,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe. We’re going to update the recipe plugin that incorporates metric measurement and cup measurement soon. (so that we don’t have to manually calculate and add to the note next to the ingredient).
We are sorry for the inconvenience.
We have a yuzu tree. Could I substitute the Meyer’s lemon with the yuzu?
Hi Lori! Yes, you can do that, but Meyer lemon has sweeter taste to it, so adjust according to your taste. 🙂
Easy recipe! Next time I may add a little more zest for a more pronounced flavour. Rolling it in sugar was a little too sweet for my liking. Thank you for always sharing great recipes!
Hi Gloria! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! 🙂
These were absolutely delicious!
Could you tell me how much zest you usually use in terms of approximate volume or weight? I ended up using the zest of six meyer lemons and they tasted good but still very delicate. For my lemons at least I think there would have been not nearly enough. Maybe mine were smaller than yours.
Hi J! Thank you so much for trying my recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! According to online articles, 1 lemon zest is 1 Tbsp which is 6 grams. I have 3, so roughly 18 grams. Next time add more zest, if you like. 🙂
Thank you! I used almost that much. My lemons were a bit squishy from age so it was harder to zest them effectively. I know it’s a matter of preference but for new things I always like to have a reference point to compare from.
Hi J! I personally don’t mind adding more (I want to overwhelm my cookies with Meyer lemons… so good!). 😀
My son & I finished eating this batch by ourselves in 2 days! It was so good! We are fortunate that my mom has an abundant Meyer lemon tree in her backyard. I’ll have to make another batch and restrain myself so I can share them with her next time. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Hi Anita! You’re so lucky to have a source for abundant Meyer lemons! I’m jealous! I’m happy to hear you and your son enjoyed this recipe. It’s too dangerous to keep these around… I have no self control. 😀
We really want to try this Meyer lemon sables recipe because we harvested a lot of Meyer lemons from our tree this year! However, my children are allergic to nuts. Is there anything we can use to replace the almond flour in the recipe? Thank you in advance! We always enjoy your recipes and watch your videos on YouTube all the time!
Hi Jackie! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. Wow I’m jealous of your Meyer lemons! You can substitute the almond flour with cake flour. Hope that will work. 🙂
Hi Nami! What can I sub almond meal with if I have none at home?
Hi Petrina! You can use regular flour if you like. The texture will be different. 🙂
Hi Nami. These look and sound refreshing! Do I have to use almond meal, or could I use all AP flour? Thank you.
Hi Juliana! I recommend using it for the texture that has nice crisp. I wouldn’t skip it if I was making this, but if you prefer to use AP, you can. 🙂
Dear Ms. Nami,
What if I don’t have almond flour, can I replace it by cornstarch ? or just remove it from the recipe?
Hi Deip! No.. ratio is very important in baking recipe so you can’t remove it. If you change to cake flour instead, the texture is harder and less crisp. 🙂 I haven’t tried it with corn starch though…
[…] Meyer Lemon Cookies […]
Hi Nami, I’m staying in LA but i cant seem to find Meyer Lemon. May I know which mart you go to?
Hi Ode! Meyer lemons are available from November through March, and it should be still available especially we are in California. Have you tried farmers markets, local produce stores, maybe Whole Foods… maybe those big grocery stores may not carry them. Try gourmet grocery stores. Oh, costco carries it too, although I haven’t been in store for many months, I’m not too sure if they currently carry them. 🙂
I found Meyer lemons at Sprouts (So. California) — there were 3 good sized lemons pre-bagged in a resealable bag for $3.99. Hope this helps!
Nice! Thank you, Dianne!
Hi Nami,
Thank you for sharing many delisious sldessert recipe to us!!! I love all desserts from Japan and Taiwan. They are Sweet but not that sweet like America! I notice that you used almond flour in the recipe . May I just just the cake flour instead the almond flour since my kids are allergic to almond? Will the texture changed?
Hi Kristy! Yeah, I love Asian sweets too, so most of the sweet recipes here on JOC tend to be “not so sweet” Asian type. 🙂
It will definitely lose crisp texture. I haven’t made cookies without using almond flour for this recipe, so I’m not too sure how much cake flour should be used. I’ve read that you only need 30% of almond flour amount if you want to switch to flour… but I don’t know if that’s true… Let me know if you try… 🙂
I tasted the dough before it went into the fridge and it tastes kind of bland to me. I notice there is no salt in the recipe. Is this deliberate? I’ve never made pastry without salt!
Hi Cynthia! You can add salt if you prefer, but there are pastry recipes that do not include salt (or salted butter) in American or Japanese cookbooks. This sable recipe is based on a Japanese baking book (but not using Meyer lemons and amount is not the same), and the original recipe does not include salt. If you’re comfortable adding salt in your pastry, please do so. 🙂
These were delicious and quickly disappeared from my kitchen. I used almond meal the first time,
which gave them a browner look due to the almond skins, so next time I’ll use almond flour so the yellow of the Meyer lemon stands out more. I had no idea the Meyer lemon was from China! Thanks again.
Hi Lord Sakana! Thank you for trying this recipe! Ah almond meal and almond flour. It’s healthier with meal though, but the look can be different in terms of color. I’m glad to hear the recipe was a success. Thank you very much for trying my recipe (all the time!) and for your kind feedback. 🙂
I don’t have lemon zest,
,but i have lemon extract,can i use it for your meyer lemon cookies recipe?
Hi Phan! I guess you “can” do it, but it significantly improve the quality of cookies by adding zest. More fragrance and taste. But if you can’t get it… then adjust the amount of extract in case you want to add more citrus kick (as you don’t add zest). 🙂
Thank you so much,I will make those cookies when i have time.