When life gives you lemons… Make delicious, buttery cookies! Every year, a bunch of the women on my dad’s side of the family get together for a cookie exchange. We all bake a dozen cookies for every person in attendance and then we exchange our cookies that we made. We also decorate cut out cookies and pretzels, and we usually do a small gift exchange. It’s a gay ol’ time with the fam! I am always overjoyed for this event, until it’s 3 am and I’m on my kitchen floor waiting for the last batch of cookies to come out of the oven. It never fails. I got started early this year though, so instead of waiting for the cookies to get out of the oven at 3 am, I was glazing the cookies. Progress. However, I must say, it was well worth it. Not only did I get 13 dozen different kinds of cookies that I didn’t have to bake, I had a lot of these yummy lemon meltaways leftover, all to myself!
Lemon Meltaway Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (packed – about 2 lemons)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch or arrowroot
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest for garnish if desired
Directions
- In a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add ½ cup of confectioners’ sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add 1 tablespoon of lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Gently blend on low until incorporated, scraping down sides with a spatula as needed.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch and salt. Whisk together.
- Add the flour, in four batches, to the creamed butter and lemon mixture. Blend on medium low until incorporated.
- Place the cookie dough in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- To bake the cookies, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop a level spoonful of dough using a 1-inch cookie scoop. Roll each into a tight ball and place two inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheet.
- Press each dough ball to the desired thickness using the bottom of a flat glass covered with a small piece of wax paper.
- Bake for 13 minutes at 350 degrees until lightly browned around the edges. Slide the parchment paper onto a wire rack to cool.
- Repeat with a new piece of parchment paper placed on a cooled cookie sheet. Cool cookies completely before glazing.
To make the glaze,
- Mix together 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice. Add more lemon juice or sugar as needed to reach desired consistency. Garnish with lemon zest if desired.
- Allow the glaze to fully set then store cookies in a cool place or refrigerator.