Easy buttery lemon and bee pollen shortbread biscuits finished with a simple lemon icing. A bright and delicate summer biscuit recipe that feels both simple and seasonal.
These lemon and bee pollen shortbread biscuits feel perfectly suited to summer baking. The buttery shortbread is balanced with fresh lemon zest and finished with a delicate lemon icing. A scattering of golden bee pollen adds subtle floral notes and a little texture.
They are ideal for slower afternoons and easy seasonal baking — served alongside a cup of tea, added to a picnic spread or shared as part of a simple summer dessert table.
Shortbread is also one of the simplest biscuit recipes to make from scratch. Traditionally based around a classic 1, 2, 3 ratios of sugar, butter and flour, it is a recipe that proves simple baking is often the best. Once you have the base recipe, it is easy to adapt with different flavours such as citrus zest or seasonal ingredients.
Star Ingredient
Bee pollen adds a subtle floral flavour and delicate texture that works beautifully with lemon. Sprinkled over the icing while still soft, it brings gentle colour to the finished biscuits. Its natural golden tones make these shortbread biscuits feel especially summery and ingredient led.
I particularly like using bee pollen in baking where the flavours are simple and balanced. Strong spices or rich chocolate can easily overpower it. However, citrus allows its softer floral notes to come through naturally. Paired with buttery shortbread and sharp lemon icing, it becomes the ingredient that quietly ties the whole recipe together.
How Purchase Ingredients to be Conscious to the Planet
Shortbread biscuits are truly the simplest ones to make. Simply you need 2 dry ingredients and one wet.
Sugars and flour come in paper bags if shopping in supermarkets. If you have the option of a regenerative flour than its production process will also be giving back to the fields that it was grown in. Refill shops are another useful place to pick up these items as you can utilise containers that you already have.
For the butter, if you make it yourself you can purchase the double cream needed in glass bottles. My local milkman delivers it and will collect the empty bottles alongside the milk / juice ones. If picking your cream up in a store, recycle or purpose the empty glass bottle. Alternatively, you can choose to support local. Local dairies can be stocked at local farm shops or food halls. Or they may even have their own stall at farmers’ markets.
Lemons are easily found loose nowadays whether at supermarkets or farm shops. I will normally always have my trusty net bags to help me wrangle them.
Bee pollen is the more uncommon ingredient within this lemon and bee pollen shortbread biscuit recipe. I have come across it loose in scoop wholefoods shop in Bath. This is the first time I had seen it so of course picked some up. There have 2 stores in the UK, Bath and Bristol. They do local deliveries or click and collect services. If you can only find in plastic bags, buy as big as you can (and that you think you will use). This will help with having a better product to packaging ratio.
Ingredients you can buy Plastic Free
- Caster Sugar
- Plain Flour
- Lemon
- Icing Sugar
- Bee Pollen
Ingredients you can Make
- Butter – homemade recipe here
Equipment You Will Need
- Mixing Bowl
- Wooden Spoon
- Rolling Pin
- Butterfly Cookie Cutter (any shape with work)
- Baking Sheet
- Silicone Baking Mat / Baking Parchment Paper
- Cooling Rack
- Small Bowl
- Teaspoon
- Measuring Spoon
- Piping Bag
Tips and Tricks when Baking Lemon and Bee Pollen Shortbread Biscuits
Butter or Margarine for Shortbread Biscuits
Shortbread biscuits are traditionally made with butter, hence why they are described as buttery shortbread. Both butter and plant butter will give you the traditional taste. Using homemade butter is even butter.
However, you can utilise margarine if that is what you have. It works as well within the recipe. You still get the same crisp, melt in the mouth texture of shortbread. However, the taste will be less buttery.
Adding in the Lemon Zest to your Shortbread Biscuits
Adding in your lemon zest can happen in a couple of ways. You can zest it in at the beginning, so it is creamed in with the butter and sugar. If you begin creaming and have forget your lemon, you can add in the zest part way through. And then just finish of the creaming process.
Alternatively, some people like to rub the lemon zest into the sugar. This can aid with release a bit more of the lemon oil. Once done, you can then add in the butter and cream from there.
Cookie Cutter
As these are summery biscuits, I chose a butterfly cutter for them. A bee one would work very well if you have one. You can use whatever shape cutter you have to hand. The size may adjust the yield of biscuit.
Alternative you could pop into a square tin and bake. And then cut into squares/rectangles once baked.
Decorating your Lemon and Bee Pollen Shortbread Biscuits
If you cannot find bee pollen, you can of course still make these are simple lemon shortbread biscuits. The biscuits can be just finished with the lemon icing.
How you choose to use the lemon icing is up to you. You can drizzle zig zags, the amount of icing in the recipe will be enough to do this on all the biscuits. However, you can decorate as you like – dots, strips or swirls. If you need more icing, you can simply make a double batch.
Lemon and Bee Pollen Shortbread Biscuits
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Wooden Spoon
- Rolling Pin
- Butterfly Cookie Cutter (any shape with work)
- Baking Sheet
- Silicone Baking Mat / Baking Parchment Paper
- Cooling rack
- Small Bowl
- Teaspoon
- Measuring Spoon
- Piping Bag
Ingredients
Shortbread Biscuits
- 100 g Caster Sugar plus extra for sprinkling
- 200 g Butter / Plant Butter
- Zest of 1 Lemon
- 300 g Plain Flour
Lemon Icing
- 65 g Icing Sugar
- 2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
Decoration
- Bee Pollen
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add in the butter, sugar and lemon zest.
- Cream together until pale and smooth.
- Add in the plain flour and mix to form breadcrumbs that are beginning to come together.
- Bring the dough together with your hands.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface until about ½ inch thick.
- Using your cookie cutter, cut out biscuits, rerolling as needed.
- Place your biscuits on lined baking sheet.
- Pop in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
- Once the biscuits have chilled, sprinkle with some sugar.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until just golden on the edges.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- To make the icing, mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice until a thick but pipeable icing is formed.
- Pipe the icing over the cooled biscuits in a zig zag or swirly pattern.
- Sprinkle with bee pollen to finish.
- Store in an airtight container.
Other Shortbread Recipes you may be Interested in
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