What's better than a buttery, crisp shortbread? A buttery, crisp shortbread with fluffy, whipped lemon icing! These cookies are delicious, addictive, and so easy to make!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with a foil sling. Process the flour, powdered sugar, and salt together for a few seconds before adding in the chunks of cold butter. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with about 6-8 pulses or until it looks like small peas. Press the mixture into the baking dish with the flat bottom of a glass or small dish. Bake for 20 minutes or until very lightly browning. Let cool completely on a wire rack. I remove my shortbread (using the sling) from the pan after about 30 minutes to let it cool the rest of the way.
To make the frosting, heat the milk, flour, and granulated sugar together over medium heat, whisking constantly. Once it starts to boil, continue whisking and heating it for around 7 minutes or until it's very thick, like cake batter consistency. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the lemon extract. Remove the mixture to a shallow pan and let the mixture cool completely (after a bit, I stuck mine in the fridge to hurry it along).
Once the mixture is cool, beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until soft and fluffy. Add the completely cooled mixture and beat on high until you have fluffy frosting the consistency of stiff whipped cream (this takes a few minutes — don’t worry!) Slice the shortbread into bars and pipe the frosting over the cooled shortbread bars and enjoy!
Recipe by Willow Bird Baking at https://willowbirdbaking.com/2015/05/10/shortbreads-with-lemon-whipped-icing/