Together with peppermint, shiny, zesty lemon is an important taste of the vacations for me. I usually spend Christmas at my mother’s in Louisiana and he or she has a lemon tree in her yard, which implies her freezer is nearly all the time stocked with frozen lemon juice, prepared for use in her incredible lemon icebox pies and lemon bars. My entire household loves lemon desserts, and this 12 months I’ve one other candy so as to add to our repertoire: these bright-tasting lemon sugar cookies created by our Birmingham-based take a look at kitchen colleague Jasmine Smith. The cookies are buttery candy, however not cloyingly so like some sugar cookies, due to the punch of shiny citrus taste. 

Most lemon desserts lack daring citrus taste and simply aren’t lemony sufficient—however Jasmine solves that situation by utilizing lemon juice and zest within the cookie dough, and incorporating the citrus juice into the glaze that tops the cookies, which she then garnishes with much more zest. To additional improve the fruit’s taste, she rubs the zest with sugar, which helps draw out the rind’s oils, releasing their shiny, citrusy taste and aroma. (It is a trick we make use of in plenty of our recipes, together with Genevieve‘s lemon curd and Daniel‘s spicy chile lemonade.) She additionally rolls the cookie dough log in among the lemon zest–sugar combination earlier than slicing and baking, which supplies the cookie edges a beautiful lemony crunch. Since you’ll use juice and zest in a number of phases on this recipe, I like to recommend beginning by zesting and juicing all of the lemons referred to as for. In case you have juice or zest leftover, simply use it to make one thing else (this easy lemon French dressing, for instance). 

One other tried-and true baking approach Jasmine employs in these tender, citrusy cookies is refrigerating the dough after rolling it into logs. Refrigerating the dough permits the flour to totally hydrate, which supplies the ultimate cookies higher construction. Conserving the dough chilly additionally helps preserve the cookies from spreading within the oven. In the meantime, because the dough rests, enzymes break down massive carbohydrates, which in flip produces extra flavorful cookies, as former Critical Eats culinary director and science nerd Kenji notes in his chocolate chip cookie recipe.

After resting within the fridge, the cookies are sliced and positioned on a baking sheet, then transferred to the freezer for a fast chill. This time within the freezer helps stop the cookies from spreading an excessive amount of as they bake and produces good, neat round cookies. 

For a remaining flourish after baking, you may unfold the cookies with a easy glaze of powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla, then prime them with further lemon zest. It is a straightforward, tangy, and good wanting cookie that will be welcome at a vacation cookie swap or get together. Personally, I can simply image a plate of them alongside a cup of tea in my mother’s yard on a sunny day in South Louisiana.

December 2024