Glazed Lemon Cookies

There is a little cafe in Searcy, AR that I have been to a few times with my mother.  Searcy is the home of Harding University, where I went to church camp during high school and pondered applying to.  On visits there for various reasons, Momma Kegs would take me to this cafe. The food was standard but the real treat was their Lemon Cookie.  It was light and had just a hint of refreshing lemon both in the cookie and in its glaze.  Maybe exaggerations have crept into my memory, but these cookies would melt in your mouth and leave you wishing you had at least a dozen more to savor.

As a self professed lemon lover, the memory of these cookies has always been in the back of my mind. So, since I have a few lemons in my house that are on their last leg, I decided it was high time to bring back those little lemon cookies.  But how? I remembered back to the inspiration cookie and decided that one of its strongest attributes was its simplicity with a hint of lemon flavor. So I started with a basic sugar, almost shortbread like, cookie and worked my way from there.

Notes:

• This could also easily be done with other citrus fruits with wonderful results.
• My recipe states that you should make the cookies on the thin side as you flatten them, this is to prevent having too much cookie in a mound and not enough icing to balance out the dense cookie. Simply take the dough ball and press it flat in your hands, then make it a little flatter to compensate for poofing.
• When baking, do not expect a huge physical transformation to signal that these cookies are done.  They gain very little color at all.

Glazed Lemon Cookies

• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 2 T lemon zest (about 3 lemons)
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 c. butter, room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 t. vanilla
• 3-4 T. lemon juice, fresh
• 2 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. If available, line two large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the sugar and lemon zest into a small bowl.  Rub the mixture together with your fingers (to release all the oils) until well mixed and fragrant. Set aside.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar/zest until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until well incorporated.

In three batches, beat the dry ingredients in on low speed. Once completely incorporated, stop mixing.

Scoop out cookies using a small ice cream scoop.  Go back to the cookie dough balls and flatten them out with your palms; make them on the thin side as the cookie will poof but will not spread much.

Once all scooped out and flattened, bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are set and slightly brown on the bottom.  Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

After the cookies have cooled, mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice together in a medium bowl, reaching a paste like consistency.  Dip each cookie into the glaze or drizzle the glaze over the cookies. Be generous.

Let the cookies sit until the glaze has hardened.