These Vegan Lemon Thumbprint Cookies are soft, melt-in-your-mouth "buttery", and filled with bright and tangy lemon curd. They're also gluten-free and refined sugar free too. Perfect as Christmas cookies, but they also work well for Easter, Mother's Day, baby showers, bridal showers, and everything in between!
These Vegan Lemon Thumbprint Cookies are similar to my Jam Thumbprint Cookies recipe, but they're filled with lemon curd, so they also taste a bit like Lemon Bars!
Thumbprint Cookies originally come from Sweden, where they are known as Hallongrotta. They are known as Thumbprint Cookies in the US, where they are commonly eaten as Christmas Cookies. Similar cookies are eaten in Australia, where they are known as jam drops.
The cookies are usually made with a crunchy shortbread cookie dough, or a soft sugar cookie dough. I tested both and decided to use a sugar cookie dough for these cookies as I prefer the soft, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
The lemon curd is made using shop-bought custard powder.
This is my favourite custard powder - it's vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free, and contains just 4 simple ingredients!
Not only does this custard powder act as a thickener, making the lemon curd extra creamy, but it also adds a lovely colour without having to use something like turmeric.
You can also use shop-bought lemon curd - if you can find one that matches your dietary requirements!
If you can't get hold of a shop-bought custard powder, you can replace it with the same amount of cornflour (cornstarch) or arrowroot, which will result in a similar texture, though the colour will be considerably less yellow.
To add yellow colour, I would suggest adding a tiny pinch of saffron, which I much prefer to turmeric as it has a much milder flavour.
You can use any type of plant-based milk, though results do vary depending on which you choose: cashew, oat or coconut milk make a super thick and creamy curd, whilst almond milk will be less creamy. I like to use rice milk as it creates a sticky lemon curd-like consistency which I love.
Tips for baking with lemons
- For optimum lemon flavour, I would recommend using fresh lemons (not ones that you've had sitting in your fruit bowl for weeks!) and organic ones if possible.
- You have to be careful when baking with lemon juice as the acidity and lemon flavour can really vary depending on the lemons you use.
- I would recommend tasting the lemon juice you're using and adjusting the amount of lemon juice you use accordingly.
- For the lemon zest, make sure you use unwaxed lemons.
How to make the cookie dough
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together the ingredients for the cookie dough in a mixing bowl.
- Place the dough in the fridge while you make the lemon curd filling to help it firm up.
How to make the lemon curd filling
- Measure out the rice milk in a measuring jug.
- Pour the milk into a pan, leaving behind a few tablespoons of milk in the jug.
- Heat up the milk.
- Add the custard powder to the remaining milk in the jug and mix well, ensuring it has dissolved completely.
- Once the milk in the pan is steaming, add approximately half of the hot milk to the bowl with the dissolved custard powder, mix well and transfer the custard powder mixture to the pan.
- Mix well and keep stirring on a low heat for around 5 minutes, until thickened.
- Add the lemon juice and maple syrup.
How to make the cookies
- Shape the cookie dough into small round, flat patties and lay out on a rectangular baking tray.
Tip: Line the baking tray with greased baking paper to make sure the cookies don't stick.
- Use your thumb or the back of a teaspoon to form an indent in the centre of each cookie.
- Fill each indent with a heaped teaspoon of the lemon curd.
- Bake in the oven for around 10 minutes - be careful not to over-bake!
- They will still be very soft when they come out the oven, but will firm up as they cool down.
How long do these Lemon Thumbprint Cookies keep for?
These Lemon Thumbprint Cookies do taste best when fresh, but keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of plant-based milk for the cookie dough: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can replace the coconut oil with coconut butter.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- If you don't need the cookies to be gluten-free, you can replace the gluten-free flour with plain flour.
- The ground almonds can be replaced with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version, use ground sunflower seeds instead of ground almonds and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
- You can also use shop-bought lemon curd - if you can find one that matches your dietary requirements!
- You can replace the lemon curd with raspberry jam or any other jam or spread.
Substitutions to be careful of
- If you can't get hold of a shop-bought custard powder, you can replace it with the same amount of cornflour (cornstarch) or arrowroot, which will result in a similar texture, though the colour will be considerably less yellow.
- If not using custard powder, I would suggest adding a tiny pinch of saffron for yellow colour. I much prefer using saffron to turmeric, as it has a much milder flavour.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk for the lemon curd, though results do vary depending on which you choose: cashew, oat or coconut milk make the creamiest and thickest curd, whilst almond milk will be less creamy. I personally prefer to use rice milk as it creates a just-set lemon curd-like consistency which I love.
More gluten-free vegan cookie recipes
- Snickerdoodles
- Chocolate Cookies
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Millionaire Shortbread
- Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Linzer Cookies
- Homemade Oreos
- Brownie Cookies
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I'd really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Vegan Lemon Thumbprint Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 30 g (⅛ cup) coconut oil (or sub coconut butter)
- 9 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other similar sweetener)
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- 6 tablespoons almond milk
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (use unwaxed lemons)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub rice flour, or plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
For the lemon curd:
- 300 ml (1 ¼ cup) unsweetened rice milk ** (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons custard powder *** (or sub cornflour/cornstarch or arrowroot)
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice to taste (approximately equals the juice of 1 lemon)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup to taste (or sub any other sweetener)
Instructions
For the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave.
- Add the maple syrup, almond milk, vanilla and salt and mix well.
- Measure out the ground almonds, gluten-free flour and baking powder and mix well.
- Add these to the other ingredients and mix well.
- If it looks too dry, add a splash more plant-based milk.
- Place the dough in the fridge while you make the lemon curd filling to help it firm up.
For the lemon curd:
- Measure out the rice milk in a jug or measuring container.
- Pour the milk into a pan, leaving behind a few tablespoons of milk in the jug.
- Heat up the milk in the pan.
- Add the custard powder to the remaining milk in the jug and mix well, ensuring it has dissolved completely.
- Once the milk in the pan is steaming, add approximately half of the hot milk to the bowl with the dissolved custard powder, mix well and transfer the custard powder mixture to the pan.
- Mix well and keep stirring on a low heat for around 5 minutes, until thickened.
- Add the lemon juice and maple syrup.
- Taste and add extra lemon juice or maple syrup if desired.
To make the cookies:
- Shape the cookie dough into small round, flat patties and lay them out on a baking tray lined with greased baking paper - makes 15 cookies.
- Use your thumb or the back of a teaspoon to form an indent in the centre of each cookie.
- Fill each indent with a heaped teaspoon of the lemon curd.
- Bake in oven for 10 minutes - be careful not to over-bake!
- They will be slightly soft when you remove them from the oven and will firm up as they cool down.
- Taste best when fresh, but keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog - thank you.
Anonymous
Will make these for Christmas!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much! Hope you'll love them!
Edie
Would you consider making recipes, at least some, without all the oil, coconut,etc.?
Thanks. 🙂
Rhian Williams
Thanks for asking! I do have some oil-free recipes on my website, but for this recipe you can swap out the coconut oil for a few tablespoons of applesauce. I hope that helps!