Looking for a fabulous new Christmas Cookie this year?

Look no further. A big thanks to Sassy Radish (http://www.sassyradish.com) for this recipe which is based on Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in “Paris Sweets”. Personally, I really appreciated the measurements being in metric so I could use my scale. I let the dough rest overnight and baked them this morning. OMG, are they awesome!

Lemon Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
2 sticks (8 oz; 230 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅔ cup ( 2 ½ oz; 70 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature, separated
pinch of salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
grated zest of 1-2 lemons (to taste)
2 cups (9 ⅞ oz; 280 grams) all-purpose flour
Approximately ½ cup (3 ½ oz; 100 grams) sugar, for coating
Preparation:
Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and beat at medium speed until it is smooth and satiny. Add the sifte confectioners’ sugar and beat again, starting on the lowest speed, gradually increasing, until the mixture is smooth and silky. Beat in 1 of the egg yolks, followed by salt, vanilla, and zest.
Turn the mixer speed off and add the flour. Turn the mixer on the lowest setting and mix until the flour just disappears. It’s crucial here not to overbeat. So, if you see that the flour isn’t fully incorporated, that’s okay – just blend in whatever remaining flour there is using a rubber spatula.
Tear 2 pieces of plastic wrap enough to wrap the dough that will be deivded in half. Spoon half the dough onto one piece, and the other half onto the other piece. By lifting sides of the plastic wrap and placing them over the dough, shape each mound into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Working on a smooth surface, still using that same piece of plastic wrap, to keep your dough in place, form each piece of dough into a log that is about 1 to 1 ¼ inches thick. Dorie tells us here that if you get the thickness right, you will end up with the proper log length. Then you use the piece of plastic to wrap the dough back up and give it at least a 2 hour rest. I gave it an overnight rest because I thought it could use some lounging time. In retrospect, that was the best decision I could’ve made.
Position the racks in the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celsius). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. [If you happen to be on a mad cookie baking project, remember this - you can reuse your parchment paper, which is both much simpler logistically, and creates less waste!]
While oven preheats, work on the sugar coating, by whisking the other egg yolk in a small bowl until it is smooth enough to be used as glaze. Spread the sugar out on a piece of wax paper. Remove he logs of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap them and while they’re lying in the plastic wrap, brush them lightly with a little egg yolk. You want a thin coating so that the sugar sticks.
Roll the logs in the sugar, making sure to coat all sides. Then, using a sharp, thin knife, slice each log int o cookies about ¼ inch thick. Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving about ½ inch space between them.
Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, rotating midway, or until they are set but not browned, though it’s fine if the yolk/sugar edges brown a tiny bit. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes, before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.
Packed air-tight, the cookies will keep for 5 days at room temperature, but good luck keeping them that long.

I Should Follow My Own Advice!

Earlier this week, I found myself telling someone that I wasn’t too impressed with Martha Stewart recipes as everything I’d made so far was mediocre.

Then why did I decide yesterday to make “Chocolate Charms” from an old Martha Stewart Christmas book I own??

They were awful. I have put them in a tin and hope that perhaps they will get better as they age.

Here are two of my favorite tips for your Christmas baking:

1. Invest in some good cookie dough scoops. I prefer the ones I purchased from Williams-Sonoma over Crate and Barrel or Target. When a recipe calls for 1 inch rolled cookie, I scoop the dough with my smallest scoop and then roll them. They are uniform and will bake evenly. The same goes for crescents, I scooped first and then shaped the crescents.

2. Buy a gram/oz digital scale. I have both American and metric recipes, which is why I purchased the scale initially. An added bonus is that I now weigh the ingredients that are messy and hard to clean out of measuring cups, such as peanut butter and shortening. 1 cup of peanut butter weighs 260 grams. 1 cup of Crisco weighs 208 grams. 1 stick of butter weighs 4 oz. My scale has a big metal bowl which makes cleaning up a breeze.

These are the cookies I have baked so far this month:

• Vanillekipferl (almond crescents, or ‘Moons’ as Julia called them)
• Sandgebäck (shortbread sandwiches filled with black currant jelly)
• Peanut Butter Cookies with PB Cups
• Basic frosted brownies (no BtS Brownies this year, we’re dieting!)
• Russian teacakes
• Chocolate Charms

 I'm planning to experiment with my favorite Rugelach recipe and make it into a bar cookie. Keep your fingers crossed!