Lemon-Glazed Butter Cookies
Lemon-Glazed Butter Cookies pack a huge lemon punch! Rich, tender butter cookies topped with a fresh lemon glaze, these little beauties are amazingly-delicious.
Can you believe I'm not generally a fan of cut-out cookies?
That's right folks. I've publicly admitted it. I'm not a big fan of cut-out cookies.
Their decorated little selves always look so beautifully tempting sitting on a cookie platter or in the cookie jar, with their colorful frosting and sprinkles just calling out to be eaten.
Oh yes, they look pretty and all ... and then ... you take that bite ... all excited for the yumminess that just must be bottled up under all that beautiful adornment ...
Just. To be. Disappointed. Because the taste and texture just don't live up to the decoration.
Rich, tender butter cookies topped with a fresh lemon glaze, these little beauties are amazingly-delicious.
That's been my experience with many of the cut-out cookie dough recipes out there. But the butter cookie dough in these Lemon-Glazed Butter Cookies has changed my mind! It's oh so rich, tender, and amazingly-delicious.
Failure of texture and flavor to live up to the beautiful decoration will not be a problem with these delicious butter cookies.
I fell in absolute love with this basic rolled butter cookies dough when I first used it to create Raspberry Jam Sandwich Cookies a while back. So I decided to do a glazed non-sandwich cookie version with it. This lemon-glazed butter cookies version, to be exact.
And it cuts so nicely.
I used a flower shape to make my Lemon-Glazed Butter Cookies, but any shape would work just fine.
Once the butter cookies are cut out and baked, whip up a quick and easy lemon glaze.
Simply combine confectioners sugar, fresh lemon juice, and lemon zest to form a the glaze. Then spread it all over the top of each cookie.
Then sprinkle the top with a touch of bright yellow sanding sugar or sugar sprinkles if you'd like, just to give the cookies a touch of color and a little sparkle. They're pretty all sparkly, don't you think?
And one whose texture and flavor totally live up to the beauty of their decoration. No matter what adornments you give them.
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Yield: Varies
Lemon-Glazed Butter Cookies
Lemon-Glazed Butter Cookies pack a huge lemon punch! Rich, tender butter cookies topped with a fresh lemon glaze, these little beauties are amazingly-delicious.
prep time: 1 H & 15 Mcook time: 10 Mtotal time: 1 H & 25 M
ingredients:
For the Cookies:
- 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
- 3/4 c. granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 16 T. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened & cut into 16 pieces
- 2 T. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
For the Glaze:
- 1 c. confectioners sugar
- 5 to 6 tsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. lemon zest
- small pinch salt
- bright yellow colored sugar for sprinkling {optional}
instructions:
How to make Lemon-Glazed Butter Cookies
Prepare Cookie Dough:
- Place flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer (or large mixing bowl); mix on low speed about 10 seconds until well combined.
- With the mixer running at low speed, add 1 piece of butter at a time dropping them in about 3 seconds apart. Once all the butter is added, continue mixing about 1 to 2 minutes more until the mixture resembles moist crumbs.
- Beat in cream cheese and vanilla for about 30 seconds until dough starts to form large clumps.
- Use your hands to knead dough until it comes together into a large ball, about 3 or 4 turns.
- Divide dough into two equal pieces, press each piece into a round slightly flattened disc, wrap each in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes until firm but still pliable.
Cut & Bake Cookies:
- Working with one dough piece {keep the other one in the refrigerator}, roll 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick* between 2 pieces of parchment paper or on a lightly floured work surface. Peel away top sheet of parchment {if using}.
- Use a 2-inch fluted round or flower/wreath cookie cutter {or other shape, if desired} to cut cookies from the rolled dough. Place on a baking sheet.
- Bake at 375 degrees until just barely light golden brown at the edges, about 8 - 10 minutes.
- Allow to cool on baking sheet for 2 - 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Prepare Glaze:
- Whisk together confectioners sugar, 5 teaspoons of lemon juice, salt, and lemon zest with a fork until smooth. Whisk in additional teaspoon of lemon juice if needed to make glaze easily spreadable.
- Spread on cooled cookies and sprinkle with yellow colored sugar, as desired.
- Let glaze set for at least 30 minutes before serving.
TRACEY'S NOTES:
- * Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick for softer, tender cookies. Roll it 1/8-inch thick for crisper cookies.
- The yield of this recipe varies greatly depending on the thickness of the rolled dough and size of cookie cutters used. I roll the dough about 1/4-inch thick and use approximately 2-inch cookie cutters -- and get anywhere from 2 to 3 dozen cookies.
- For even more lemon punch, add up to 1 teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest to the butter cookie dough. Add the zest when you beat in the cream cheese.
Cookie dough adapted from Cook's Illustrated Baking Book: Baking Demystified
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