When I came across this recipe, I could almost taste the lemon flavor of the icing on my tongue, and decided to save the recipe and to make these cookies.

As you already know, I only post recipes which I have personally tested, and share my own pictures of the finished product (I’m still a newbie on food photography..).  I also post some products completed by others in their kitchens, but once I had the pleasure of sampling them, I am more than honored to include them in my post, with the permission of the chef, of course.

These Frosted Lemon Cookies are actually very good, and the lemon icing is a very refreshing change for your taste buds, after sampling a myriad of sweets during the Holiday Season.  As this recipe is for drop cookies, it is a quick project and even the frosting is quite simple.  The only thing that requires a little more patience is the drying time of the frosted cookies, but even that is possible during the same time frame as the baking.

This recipe makes 5 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sweet butter (unsalted), softened
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbs lemon peel, grated
• 1 Tbs lemon juice (from one lemon)
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Combine the butter, sugar and eggs.
2. Mix well, until well blended and creamy.
3. Add the lemon peel and lemon juice, and mix well.
4. Mix the flour with the cream of tartar, salt, and baking soda.
5. Gradually add to butter mixture and continue mixing until a smooth batter is formed.
6. Drop cookie batter by rounded teaspoonfuls at least 1-2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Preheat oven to 400°F.
8. Bake cookies for 6 minutes, or until edges appear golden brown.
9. Remove and cool enough to handle, as you will frost warm cookies, and let them on cookie drying rack, until the frosting is set (firm to touch, not soft or sticky).

Frosting:

1. Mix 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
2. ¼ cup lemon juice
3. Few drops of your favorite food coloring (I split the frosting in half and used two different colors for each batch.  One was red and the other one was green).
4. Stir until smooth.
5. Add more sugar if you feel the glaze is too thin, due to the amount of food coloring you added.

Tip: These cookies also taste really good without the icing. Frosted cookies need to be stored in an airtight container to prevent from drying out.

To make sure you have the correct icing consistency, do not add the food coloring until after you mix the sugar

and lemon juice, and see how thick it should be.  After you add the food coloring, add more powdered sugar to

get the same consistency as it was before.  If your icing is to thin, it will take much longer to set.

I am trying very hard to keep my promise to you, and post all my cookie recipes I gave you a preview of on my Christmas cookies post.

Here is a recipe, I also adopted from Suzy, for Sugar Cut Out Cookies.  I kept the recipe in its original form with the exception of decreasing the salt to ¼ tsp, and using only white sugar (I ran out of brown sugar).  Also, I have chosen to decorate my cookies with colored sugar and sprinkles, while she beautifully frosted hers.

These Sugar Cut Out Cookies are very festive looking, and deliciously enjoyable.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix well.
3. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).
4. Gradually add to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well, until the dough is firm.
5. Divide the dough in two balls, place in a covered bowl, and cool in the refrigerator for an hour (I kept it overnight, for lack of time for baking).
6. Take out one dough ball and work it with your hands to soften it a bit.
7. Place it on a floured work area and roll it out to 1/8 inch thickness.
8. Use your favorite cookie cutters, dip them in flour, and cut out cookies.
9. Cover you baking pans with parchment paper, set you cookies on slightly apart from each other, to allow for expansion during baking.
10. Decorate with colored sugar and sprinkles.
11. Preheat oven at 375°F.
12. Bake cookies for 8 minutes, or until the edges appear golden brown.
13. Remove onto cookie rack to cool.

Tip: The taste of these cookies was super, but I would have liked them a little less firm and
crunchy.

My next few posts will include the cookie recipes I have introduced to you in my Christmas cookie post.

I am starting with my most favorite cookies, the Cream Wafers.  If you read the ingredients, you might not be able to envision how decadent these really are. They are very light and flaky, resemble a puff pastry, and practically melt in your mouth.

For your convenience, I am also including pictures of the final step by step preparation instructions, which are very important for a successful outcome of this product.

This recipe makes about 4-5 dozen of cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• ½ cup heavy cream (whipping cream, not sour cream)
• 2 cups flour, all purpose white flour
• Pinch of salt (tip of a tea spoon)
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Colored sugar (optional, for sprinkling on top)
  Granulated sugar (for dipping)

Directions:

1. Combine butter and cream, and mix thoroughly.
2. Mix in extracts.
3. Add flour and mix well.
4. Flour your hands, and divide the dough into, an orange size, balls.
5. Place balls in a bowl, cover, and chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, or overnight.
6. Take out one ball at a time, and massage, by squishing it in your hands, for 8-10 seconds.
7. Flatten the ball, place it on a floured work area, and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness.  (Sprinkle the dough lightly with flour as you are rolling it out.  But use flour sparingly as not to make the dough too dense, thus taking away from the flakiness of the cookies).
8. Keep remaining dough balls in the fridge.
9. Using a cookie cutter, cut out 1½ inch cookies (I use a circular shape).
10. Fill a dinner plate with granular sugar.
11. Transfer the rounds into the sugar.
12. Coat both sides of rounds with sugar, pressing them lightly with your fingers.
13. Gather the remaining dough from your work area, form into a ball and follow the above process until all the dough is done. (I try to work with all the fresh dough balls first, as these make the best cookies.  I keep the remnants of the dough from cut outs, in the fridge, until ready to use again.  At the end, I combine all the dough remnants, form them into a ball and follow the rest of the rolling/cutting out process.  These cookies will get denser with each roll out, as you are adding more flour during rolling.  So use as little additional flour as possible).

Remove and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  You do not need to spread these far apart, as they do not spread out, but rather puff out upwards.

Prick each cookie, about 4 times, with a fork (it lets the steam out during baking, helping it to puff out).

If you choose to sprinkle these with colored sugar, this is the time to do it.

Place in a preheated oven at 375o for 7-9 minutes, or just until set, but not browned (these remain at a very light color, even after baking).

Remove and cool on cookie racks.
You can use them plain, or with colored sugar, if you sprinkled them before baking:

or make them into sandwich cookies, with the following filling (I love them the best with the chocolate filling).

Filling Ingredients:

• ¼ cup soft butter
• ¾ cup confectioner (powdered) sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (I prefer rum extract)
• 1 ½ oz unsweetened baker’s chocolate, melted (I melt it in a microware for 1 ½ minutes, stirring halfway through).
• Few drops of food coloring (optional, and only if you do not use chocolate)

Directions:

1. Cream all ingredients well, to spreading consistency.
2. Add a drop of water, one at a time, if needed.
3. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.
4. Spread filling on the bottom side of each cookie, and cover it with another bottom side cookie (sandwich like).
5. Repeat until all are filled.

TIP:  Thicker cookie rounds will need longer baking time, and will result in lesser total quantity.