The past couple of days have been weird. Pouring rain and grey skies in the morning and then hot sun and clear blue skies to follow for the afternoon. Yesterday I puttered about getting some work done, making it to the gym to re-acquaint myself with the elliptical trainer, running errands in Chinatown and then biking over to meet up with friends for Lebanese food. It made me excited for summer with picnics, container gardening, and beach bike rides to look forward to. When I got home, the sun was setting and the magic of golden hour was taking place and before it got too dark I wanted to keep that wonderful bit of summer sky going. My solution? Bake up some lemon cookies! I saw this recipe posted the other day at Shelterrific and bookmarked it immediately. So as the sun was setting behind the skyline, I had a batch of these cookies in the oven.
These cookies are perfection. Lemony, buttery and perfectly crispy on the outside while remaining chewy on the inside. A nice little snack to remind myself that summer is on the way.
lemon cookies
(recipe from Rachel Ray)
1/2 c butter, slightly chilled (I used Earth Balance margerine)
1 c sugar (plus another 1/4 c for rolling)
zest of 2 lemons, plus 1 T lemon juice
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt1. Preheat oven to 350. In a mixer, blend butter and sugar until combined. Add in lemon zest, lemon juice and egg and mix until fluffy. Dump in flour, baking soda and salt and combine.
2. Prepare cookie sheet with silpat or parchment paper. On a small plate, roll teaspoons of dough into balls and then roll in the remaining sugar. Add to cookie sheet. Bake for about 12-14 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden. Remove from sheet and cool on racks. Makes 3 dozen.
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mmmm, this recipe is perfection! Simplicity at it’s finest. I love a fragrant lemony-buttery cookie. Especially when it follows this equation: Simple ingredients + simple flavours = Big on taste
I’m just about willing to overlook the Rachel Ray influence for this recipe, cause it sounds so good.
What I don’t like is Rachel Ray’s grating voice and the way she’s infiltrated television with her own talk show now. So glad i don’t subscribe to cable ;P
p.s. Yum, Lebanese food.
oh they sound yummy! i would love to try out but first i have to figure out the cup vs metric.
i love simple recipes..
Haven’t stopped by for a while but I’m sooooooo glad I did today! I love lemon cookies but have never made them at home. These sound simple and delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Those little gems look so good! I too am looking forward to summer, with bike rides and long days of sunshine, and all the other wonderful summer-isms. I’ll have to try these cookies to jump-start the summer!
They look delicious. We’ve had rain today so maybe I’ll whip up a batch of these in the hope it might hurry the nice weather along.
Oh its so nice here! This sounds perfect! I think once I tuck the kiddies into bed, I might whip some up! Thanks kickpleat!!!
I think these look wonderful!
joanne, i’m totally not a rachel ray fan but this recipe is tops!
crafty chica, thankfully the internet is full of all that conversion stuff! i don’t know what i’d do without it.
thanks nicole, these are pretty awesome!
judy, sometimes jumpstarting summer is the only way to make it happen when you want it to happen! plus a whole lot of wishing and hoping!
caty, if anything can push away the clouds, these cookies have my bet!
enjoy jenn!
thanks rachel, they were pretty wonderful indeed.
This recipe looks really good and I tried it as soon as I got home. Now, I am not a good baker, so I ended up burning the bottom of some of my cookies even though I took them out at 12 min. Next time, I will take them out earlier. But my bigger problem is that I found the cookies a little dry (even the ones that are just slightly browned on the edges). Is it because there was not enough moisture or are the cookies supposed to taste like that? Otherwise, the lemon flavour was really really good and it was really nice when they first came out of the oven. 🙂
bubblybunny, hmmm…maybe you baked them too long or had them on the lowest rack in the oven? mine were very chewy in the centres even the next day.
hi kickpleat, been reading your blog for a while and your lemon cookies totally did me in. first recipe i’ve tried from your website, and it worked like a DREAM! thanks for these wonderful cookies!
nehnehpok, glad you loved them! thanks for reading 🙂
These cookies are to die for. I’m so glad I came to your blog for the perfect summer cookie recipe. Love your work!