Lemon Meltaways

Cookies
14 T (196 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ C (2 oz/56 g) powdered sugar
1 T lemon zest (packed – about 2 large lemons)
2 T fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 ½ C (7 ½ oz/216 g) all-purpose flour
¼ C (1 ½ oz/40 g) cornstarch
¼ t salt

Glaze
1 C (4 oz/113 g) powdered sugar
2-3 T fresh lemon juice
1 t lemon zest for garnish optional

In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until creamy. Add ½ cup powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest and lemon juice. Gently blend on low speed until incorporated. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl as necessary. Whisk together in small mixing bowl flour, cornstarch and salt. Add flour in four batches to creamed butter and lemon mixture. Blend on medium low speed until each is incorporated. Place cookie dough in small bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Approximately 30 minutes before removing dough from refrigerator, place oven rack in middle position and heat to 350° F (177° C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone (Silpat) baking mats. To minimize cookie spread, I prefer Silpat baking pads. Scoop level spoonful of dough using ¾-inch cookie scoop. Roll each into tight ball and place two inches apart on prepared baking sheet. If you prefer cookie discs, press each dough ball to desired thickness using bottom of flat glass covered with a small piece of wax or parchment paper.

Bake for 13 minutes until lightly browned around edges rotating pan one half turn midway through baking. I prefer and recommend baking only one cookie sheet at a time. It takes longer but cookies will bake much more evenly. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely before applying glaze.

Glaze – Mix together 1 cup of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice. Add more juice or sugar as needed to reach desired consistency. Garnish with lemon zest if desired. Allow glaze to set before storing cookies in air tight container in cool place.

Makes: 32 cookies

20 Jan 18 – Dough came together as described in recipe above. Used medium glass Pyrex bowl for dry ingredients. Butter was at a perfect 67° F for creaming. I used two sheet pans covered with silpat mates. I was surprised the small quantity the ingredients produced, only about a the size of a softball. I was suspicious that it would produce 3 dozen cookies as the recipe indicated. Texture was nice. Refrigerated approximately 2 hrs in the mixing bowl. The dough ball weighed 522 g. So in an attempt to get approx 3 dozen cookies I decide to preciously portion out the dough but dividing by ½ until I got approximately 30 plus pieces. The dough was easy to divide and after dividing it 5 times, I had 32 equal pieces that were 16 g ea and approximately ¾ to-1 in diameter. I prepared the one cookie sheet with round dough balls and other sheet with the round balls flatten into disks, approximately ¼-inch high using the bottom of a glass covered with parchment paper which worked well. The dough did NOT stick. I baked each in the island oven for 13 mins. Edges browned slightly as did the bottoms. Prepared glaze with 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 T of lemon juice. It was too thin so I added powdered sugar to thicken it. I dipped the top of each cookie in the glaze rather than drizzling it over the tops. The coverage was better and I had left over glaze after dipping 32 cookies. Susan and I both agreed the texture, a little bit cruncher, was better on the disk vs the ball cookies. Round ball cookies could have used 1 additional minute. Lemon favor was good but not overly strong.