Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Lemon High Tea Cookies

These cute little Lemon High Tea Cookies are buttery, packed with lemon flavor and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!
I’ve seen variations of this recipe called Lemon Meltaways, or Snowballs, so you may have enjoyed a version of this cookie before!
I first enjoyed a version of this recipe years ago and they were called High Tea Cookies, so I stuck with that.  Also, the delicate texture of these cookies lends itself so perfectly to be enjoyed with tea, so I think the title is just right.
Buttery, packed with lemon flavor, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

ingredients:
For the cookies -
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 8 Tablespoons (1/2 cup or 1 stick) Challenge unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Glaze -
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest

directions:
  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch and salt, then set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth.  Add powdered sugar, and beat until fully incorporated.
  3. Add lemon zest, then, while mixing, slowly add lemon juice.
  4. While mixing (on low), slowly add flour mixture and blend until all of the flour is fully incorporated.
  5. Stop mixing and scrape down the sides of the bowl, then cover and refrigerate dough 30 minutes to 1 hour.
  6. When the dough has chilled, use a 1 tablespoon sized scoop to scoop out dough, then roll dough into balls and place on a parchment paper lined, or Silpat lined baking sheet.  Press down on the dough balls just a bit to flatten the tops.   Place entire baking sheet (with cookie balls) in the fridge or freezer while the oven heats up.
  7. Bake in preheated oven at 350°F. for 11-13 minutes, or just until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
  8. Cool just a bit on the baking sheet, then move cookies to a wire cooling rack.
  9. When cookies have been baked and cooled, make glaze.
  10. To make glaze, simply whisk together powdered sugar, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.  Add a bit more lemon juice as needed to reach desired consistency.
  11. Dip cooled cookies into glaze, then return to wire cooling rack (with a baking sheet below to catch excess glaze) and allow glaze to set up before storing cookies.