Limoncello is a beautifully refreshing Italian lemon liqueur which provides a grown up spin on traditional lemon flavoured biscuits.    The biscuits are a perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee with their beautifully buttery, crumbly, almost shortbread like texture, or they can be served with a cold glass of limoncello in place of a large dessert.

The recipe was adapted from the lemon finger cookies recipe from 500 Cookies: The Only Cookie Compendium You’ll Even Need by Phillipa Vanstone.  I often find when I make lemon cookie or biscuit recipes that the suggested quantities of lemon zest and juice aren’t intense enough.  Whilst I appreciate subtle flavours, I love the tartness of lemons and I don’t want it to get lost, which is why I amped things up with limoncello.

Makes 12 filled biscuits

225g of butter, cut into cubes, at room temperature
50g of icing sugar
2 tablespoons of limoncello
Zest of 2 small lemons
225g of plain flour, sifted
3 tablespoons of cornflour

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius (350 degrees farenheit) and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. In an electric mixer, beat the butter, icing sugar and lemon zest together until light and fluffy.

3. Sift in the flour and cornflour into the mixture and add the limoncello.  Mix until combined.

4. Fill a piping bag and using a fluted 1cm nozzle pipe onto the tray in 3 to 4cm fingers.  Bake for 12 minutes.

Limoncello icing

3/4 cup of icing sugar
2 tablespoons of limoncello

1. Mix the limoncello and icing sugar together until you achieve a spreadable consistency.

2. Spread the icing onto the flat side of one cookie and then sandwich together with another cookie.