Lemon Rose Shortbread Cookies.

The sweetest Lemon Rose Shortbread Cookies. Lightly sweetened, buttery shortbread cookies hinted with lemon and vanilla, and finished generously with a sweet lemony glaze. These are easy, fun, so pretty, and so very delicious! The loveliest (most romantic) cookies to bake up any time this month.

Question…what’s your take on Valentine’s Day?

Do you want my honest, bah humbug opinion? I think it’s simply a made up holiday that some genius created to make an extra buck or two on romantic cards, fancy jewelry, and chocolates. Yes, those are my thoughts. Probably because that’s been my dad’s mantra ever since I was a little girl.

I know, I know. So depressing, right? I guess that’s kind of life growing up with all boys (1 dad, 5 brothers). However, on a more positive note, my dad did always follow that comment with kind of a sweet one. He said, you need to show someone you love them in little ways every day. Not just on the one day that’s become commercially synonymous with love.

All that said, I still have an appreciation for Valentine’s Day, just like most every other girl out there. I love more the concept of Valentine’s Day. The flowers, chocolates, and sweets in general, that are such a huge part of the day. And I respect that it celebrates love of all kinds. Meaning, if you’re single, you should still embrace V-day! My grandma was my one shining knight when it came to Valentine’s Day. No matter how far apart we were, she’d always send my mom and I some kind of v-day gift. Most often it was a cute card, some chocolates, and a fun stuffed animal. Nothing big by any means, but she always made Valentine’s Day fun.

Since my grandma passed, I want to carry on that tradition with my little sister, Asher. She never got to experience very many of those sweet cards and gifts. So this year I’m baking cookies, and on the hunt for the best cheesy Hallmark stuffed animal I can find. If you have ideas for me, let me know!

While I might still be on the hunt for the perfect stuffed animal, I have the cookie part all figured out.

Enter these dainty, romantic, lemony, shortbread cookies, that are truly just as precious and delicious as they look. Normally, I’m all about chocolate desserts. But as I slowly started to envision these cookies in my head, I knew they’d be cookies that I would come to love. Both for their pretty looks and their buttery sweet deliciousness.

Like any other shortbread style cookie, these are really, really simple.

You need just five simple ingredients, butter, sugar, lemon, vanilla, and flour. If you want to be on the fancier side, some dried rose petals and a blood orange are great additions. But they’re completely optional…though very delicious.

Creaming together the butter, lemon, and roses (if you’re using) is the key to a good shortbread cookie. You want the butter to be light and fluffy, and both the lemon and rose petals to infuse the butter. This process takes a minute or two. But then all that’s left to do is add the flour, roll the cookies, chill, and bake.

Honestly, these are some of the simplest cookies, but yet still so delicious.

Oh and my other trick? Salted butter. I’ve always used salted butter. It’s what my mom baked with when I was growing up. The extra touch of salt is especially delicious when making extra buttery cookies. I know it may not be traditional, but trust me, it’s what you should use.

For the glaze, I did a simple Meyer lemon glaze. I colored it with a couple drops of blood orange juice, which gave the glaze the daintiest pink color, exactly what I wanted. With food coloring you tend to end up with these unnatural neon like colors. But the blood orange juice works so perfectly to create a light shade of pink.

To decorate, I actually just shredded real roses. Yes, roses are edible, but make sure to use orange roses or culinary roses. Just cut using a sharp knife and sprinkle them over the cookies. Like I’ve said before, flowers are my “sprinkle” of choice.

These are obviously great for Valentine’s Day, but honestly? I’ll be making them year-round. I already have plans to recreate them for my brother’s wedding this September. The sister-in-law to be has already put in her request. Can’t blame her, these do kind of scream “wedding cookies”.

Good news for me? These cookies are so easy. Good news for everyone else? They’re delicious, and well…oh so lovely!

If you make these lemon rose shortbread cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!