I think these would be great decorated with lemon curd, but since I was making several other cookies, I opted for the simple lemon glaze. I am not a fan of whoopie pies and I am notorious for changing cake cookies into crispy ones, but for some reason I kept the main premise of Anna Olson’s recipe and it was a surprise how delicious these cookies turned out to be. Olson’s cookies were bigger, flatter and slightly darker then mine, but I did take 1/2 cup of sour cream and some butter out of the recipe.
LEMON CAKE COOKIES
Cookies:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
2-1/2 cups cake and pastry flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Lemon Glaze:
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
2-1/2 cups cake and pastry flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Lemon Glaze:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar sifted
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and stir in lemon zest.
• Beat in egg yolks and whole egg until fully incorporated.
• Stir in the sour cream.
• In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add to wet ingredients and stir just until blended.
• Chill batter for 30 minutes, just to set butter a little.
• Preheat oven to 325F.
• Wet your hands every so often and form balls from a tablespoon of batter.
• Drop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies.
• Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, just until the bottoms of the cookies turn golden brown.
• Allow to cool before icing.
• For icing, stir sifted icing sugar into lemon juice until smooth.
• Stir in melted butter.
• Spread the tops of the cookies with icing.
• Store the cookies between layers of parchment to prevent sticking.
