Lovely Lemon Sugar Cookies
Apparently, Santa's favorite cookie is.....drumroll please.... Sugar Cookies!
My daughter informed me of this while waving her letter from Santa in my face. That day at school, they received a letter from the Big Guy, letting them know if they've made the naughty or nice list. At the end, Santa's last sentence said "My favorite cookies are sugar cookies."
Well, I'm on the naughty list because I wasn't going to leave Santa such a simple cookie. I made elaborate gingerbread, chocolate peppermint, among others.
"Mom, let's make him those lemon sugar cookies! Those are my favorite."
Luckily, these are super easy to whip up and I add a little frosting to get my fix in before we all start New Years Resolutions. If you only want a few, freeze and save the rest for when you need a refreshing pick me up later in the year.
THE RECIPE: LOVELY LEMON SUGAR COOKIES
These lemon sugar cookies are perfect all year round, but add a special twist at the holidays. The kids love rolling the dough into balls and dousing them in sugar. And if you want to punch it up, add a light layer of frosting.
INGREDIENTS
2 sticks Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 cup lemon juice
Zest 1 lemon
2 3/4 cup Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup additional sugar (for dusting cookies)
EASY LEMON FROSTING
3 cups Powdered Sugar
3 tbsp milk
3 or 4 drops Lemon extract
DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) into a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside
With a hand mixer or stand mixer, blend the 2 sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cup of sugar together until fluffy.
On medium speed, blend in egg, vanilla extract, lemon zest and lemon juice.
Once the wet ingredients are well blended, slowly add in the dry mixture about half a cup at a time. The dough should thicken in consistency and be hard to mix by the time all the ingredients are incorporated.
Take about a tablespoon of the dough and roll it into a ball using the palms of your hands.
Put the extra 1/4 cup of sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll the ball of dough in the sugar, creating a nice coating on the outside.
Place the ball of dough coated in sugar on a lined cookie sheet and gently press down until the dough is about a 1/4 inch thick. At this point, you may have to play with size and thickness to make all of your cookies even.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes, or until they start to get golden brown on the outside. I have a convection oven so mine took about 7 minutes. Some ovens you might have to leave them in for 10 minutes.
While letting the cookies cool, mix together the frosting: 3 cups of powdered sugar with 3 tbsp of milk. Add a couple drops of vanilla extract.
When the cookies are completely cool, spread a thin layer of the frosting on top.
