lemon shortbread cookies

Inspired by the first wildflowers of spring, I headed to the kitchen to make these intensely lemony , flaky shortbread cookies.  I know most people crave chocolate, but lemon is my very favorite flavor of all .  I never use lemon extract, because it doesn't have the same tang that freshly squeezed lemon juice has, though I do add vanilla to balance these cookies.  A little sweet, a little puckery.

You make the dough ahead of time and stick in the fridge or freezer.  It thaws fairly quickly if you freeze it, thanks to the unsalted butter, then just roll it out fairly thickly, cut out the cookies and bake.  I tend to use my round fluted cookie cutters  - perfect for a sturdy cookie that shows just the tiniest amount of toasty edges.  Yummers!

This made about 40 cookies for me today - I forgot to count!

Lemon Shortbread cookies

2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar (plus more for sprinkling on top, if you'd like)

2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
1 and 3/4's cups King Arthur flour

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of kosher salt

Cream the butter in the mixer bowl, add the sugar and mix.

Add the lemon zest and juice and mix.
Add the flour and mix.

Add the vanilla and pinch of salt and mix.

Gather the dough into a ball, pat it down into an oval, and wrap in plastic wrap and place in freezer.  I left it in the freezer for two days before I was ready to make the cookies.

Later:  take the dough out of the freezer to thaw a bit.

Preheat oven to 325F.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

As soon as the dough is pliable, mold into an oval with your hands, roll, and proceed to cut out your cookies.  If you'd like, sprinkle a little granulated sugar on top of the cookies.

Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 20 minutes .  I like a little toasty browning on the edge, but that's up to you.  Remove cookies to a cooling rack and continue rolling and cutting out cookies - but make sure the cookie sheet has cooled in between batches.

That's it!

Happy Easter to you all!