Springtime Lemon Cookies

Yellow. It’s the color of the sun and of lemons, and it sure seems like the color of Spring. I can’t help but think of Spring when I see it. Daffodils, daisies, and …..COOKIES! That’s right. We’re not making a cake today. Instead, we’re baking up some sweet and light lemon cookies, and it couldn’t a easier.

Let’s start with the ingredients:

​Recipe

Cookies:
2-½ c. flour
½ tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. Salt
1 cup sugar
1-¼ c unsalted butter
1 egg
2 T lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing:
2 c. powdered sugar
2-3 T lemon juice
1 T milk
2 T lemon zest

So, if you look at the ingredients, you’ll see that we use a lot of lemon zest. That’s what gives the cookies their fresh taste. There’s a short demo in the video about zesting a lemon, but you really need to know two main things. First, the process of zesting. To do it right and with a minimum of blood, you need a special tool. It’s called a zester (no surprise) and, even though it’s probably the sharpest tool in my kitchen, it also makes the job of zesting safer and easier if used right. A lot of companies make these, although one good one is Microplane. Hold onto the shield that comes with the tool because you’ll want to store the zester with it. When you’re using it, keep your fingers well away from the blade, because a zester is really a bunch of tiny little razors all lined up, but it really works great. Just rub the lemon gently across the blades, turning it as you go.

Now, here’s the second important thing. Only take the outer yellow skin off the lemon. It’s super easy to go deeper and take some of the white pith, but believe me, it doesn’t taste very good. It’s  bitter and will add nothing to your recipe. All the bright, tart lemon taste is in the skin.

OK, time to make cookies.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Combine some of your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
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Cream the butter and the sugar together in a stand mixer until they get light and fluffy. It should turn almost white. Do you know why? It’s because the beating fills the mixture with air. You can tell the difference right away.

Now mix in the egg. (And by the way, I forgot to put the egg on the cutting board when I was laying out ingredients for the video but, trust me, it’s part of the recipe)

Now add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Mix it all together, then start adding flour-not at once because it will all clump up, but in sections. I added it in four parts, mixing between each one until it’s smooth. Remember to turn your speed down for this if you don’t want a cloud in the kitchen.


Now you have cookie dough, even if it’s still a little separated. Turn it out onto the counter or a cutting board and knead it a little to introduce all the crumbs into the mix. In the end, it should form a single lump of dough.

Next you need to make some balls. Yes, you can make random sized ones, but then they bake at different rates. Some will still be partly raw and others will bake too dark. I use 1-½ T of dough per cookie and they come out perfectly. So, roll each portion into a ball, lay them on the baking sheet a couple of inches apart, and put them in the oven. You don’t have to flatten them or anything. That yummy butter will melt and make beautiful round discs of delicious.

Bake them for 10-12 minutes. You might notice in the video that my cookies are not brown. Additional baking changes both the texture and the flavor. This is the way they were meant to look.

Now for the icing, and this is not buttercream. It’s just a thin little mixture that gives your cookies an extra sweet zing. Mix all the icing ingredients into a bowl until they’ve combined. It will still be drippy. Now, before you do anything else, make sure your cookies have cooled to room temperature, otherwise you’ll have a melty mess. 

Once the cookies are cool, just spread about a teaspoonful of icing onto each cookie with the back of a spoon, let them sit until the icing firms up, and you’re done!

​Now taste one (assuming you’ve managed to wait this long). Doesn’t that just taste like sunshine? Bite on in. You’ll shine from the inside out.