It’s no secret that I love to bake — butter, sugar and flour are at the top of my grocery list all year long — but the holiday season is definitely my favorite time of year to do it. Assembling a beautiful selection of tiny, sweet bites for my family and friends to enjoy is a real pleasure, and a lovingly prepared plate of cookies may be just the thing to nibble on while we remain locked down, watching Christmas movies on Netflix when big parties and celebrations are out of the question.
When it comes to classic holiday flavors, my standard list of cookies features many of the usual suspects: crisp, peppery gingerbread men; rich, crackly chocolate drops; airy peppermint meringues; and boozy eggnog cookies decorated with red and green sprinkles. But this year, I’m shaking things up a little and giving some of my favorite cookies a fresh, zesty twist of lemon.
Lemon might not be the first flavor you think of for your holiday cookies and desserts, but maybe it should be — winter weather ushers in the prime season for citrus fruits, and markets are bursting with gorgeous specimens, including blood oranges, clementines, grapefruits, tangerines and, of course, lemons. Meyer lemons, originally a native of China, are a cross between mandarin oranges and citron or classic lemons. They are mildly acidic and very juicy, with a heady, almost floral aroma and flavor. They reach their peak in December, making them a welcome addition to your winter baking.
One way to maximize the lemon flavor in your cookie recipes is to turn plain granulated sugar into citrus sugar. Using a microplane zester, grate the lemon directly over a small bowl containing the recipe’s granulated sugar (be sure to just remove the colorful part of the skin and not the bitter white pith underneath.) To extract every drop of flavor possible, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips. When massaged together, the sharpness of the sugar crystals helps release all the essential oils in the zest, making the sugar slightly damp and sandy and deeply fragrant.
Toasted Coconut-Lemon Thumbprints
Thumbprint cookies are an annual favorite in my Christmas baking repertoire. Traditionally, I roll scoops of vanilla shortbread dough in finely chopped pecans, and once the cookies are baked but still a little soft, I make a well in the center of each one with my thumb or the back of a teaspoon to fill with raspberry jam. This year, I am trading the nuts for sweetened, shredded coconut and filling the cookies with lemon curd instead of jam. The sweet, toasted nest of coconut combined with the bright flavor of lemon, woven into the cookie dough and the filling, make a unique but welcome combination for any cookie platter.
Lemony Christmas Shortbread Cookies
For decorative Christmas cut-out cookies, I prefer the sturdy texture and buttery flavor of shortbread over the usual sugar cookie dough. Shortbread tends to spread less and hold its shape better when baked, and frosted with a tangy lemon glaze and a flurry of decorative sprinkles, they taste as good the day they are made as they do a week later, when stored in a tightly covered container. If you want to plan well in advance, once cut out and baked, the cookies freeze beautifully unfrosted for up to 2 weeks. When you are ready to serve them or give the cookies as gifts, just thaw, frost and decorate.
Lemon-Cranberry Snowballs
Whether you call them Snowballs, Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Teacakes, these tender little cookies filled with chopped pecans, walnuts or toasted pine nuts and dredged in confectioners’ sugar are a Christmas classic, and completely addictive. Most of the bakers I know make some variation of these cookies every year. This year, I flavored my snowballs with walnuts, grated lemon zest and dried cranberries for an extra festive boost. They are so good, I’ll need at least one a day this holiday season. Call them my daily Christmas vitamins, if you must.
Toasted Coconut-Lemon Thumbprints
Nut-encrusted jam thumbprint cookies are a staple of my annual Christmas cookie platters, but substituting lemon curd for jam and shredded, sweetened coconut for the chopped nuts gives these chewy gems a fresh look and bright, zesty flavor.
Makes 2 dozen cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, separated
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded, sweetened coconut
1 11-ounce jar lemon curd
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine the butter, confectioners’ and granulated sugar, and lemon zest in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat until light and creamy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and the egg yolk (reserve the egg white for later.) Reduce the mixer to low speed and gradually mix in the salt and flour, beating until the dough starts to come together.
Scoop the dough by rounded tablespoons (about 1 ounce) and roll into balls. Refrigerate them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet until cold and firm, at least 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat the remaining egg white and 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl with a fork just until slightly foamy. Place the coconut in a separate bowl. Roll the balls of cookie dough in the egg white and then in the coconut, pressing the coconut in to help it stick. Place the balls at least 2 inches apart on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes until the coconut is golden and toasted.
Transfer the baking sheets to a wire rack, and while the cookies are still warm, use your thumb or the back of a metal measuring teaspoon to make a deep well in the center of each cookie. Spoon a scant tablespoon lemon curd into each well. Return the sheet pan to the oven for 5 minutes to set the lemon curd. Cool cookies completely on a wire rack before storing in a tightly covered container for up to 3 to 5 days.
Lemony Christmas Shortbread Cookies are decorated with a lemon glaze and sprinkles.
(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Lemony Christmas Shortbread Cookies
These sturdy shortbread cut-out cookies decorated with a tangy lemon glaze and a flurry of sprinkles are surprisingly elegant. To enhance the lemon flavor in the shortbread dough, rub the zest into the granulated sugar to release more of the essential oils before continuing with the recipe. To decorate the cookies, combine coarse and fine sanding sugars, with nonpareils, jimmies, dragees and candy pearls all in a single color palette, to give the cookies added depth and texture.
Makes 3 dozen cut-out cookies
2 cups (1 pound) unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Grated zest of two lemons
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 cups all-purpose flour
* Lemon Glaze (recipe follows) and colored sprinkles for decorating
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine the butter, granulated sugar, lemon zest and confectioners’ sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer set on high speed, beat together until light and creamy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and lemon extract. Reduce the mixer to low speed and gradually mix in the salt and flour, beating until the dough starts to come together.
Divide the dough equally in two, and roll each portion between two large sheets of parchment paper to about ¼-inch thick. Take care not to roll the dough out too thinly, as shortbread cutouts are usually a little thicker than traditional sugar cookies.
Refrigerate the sheets of dough until firm, at least 30 minutes. Use 2 ½-to-3-inch cookie cutters to cut out shapes and place each cookie 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. (Scraps of dough can be rerolled, refrigerated, then cut into more cookies.)
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The shortbread should be firm and no longer shiny and just beginning to turn golden brown around the edges. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool completely before glazing.
When cool, spread the top of each cookie evenly with lemon glaze and decorate generously with sprinkles. When the icing is set, store the cookies in a tightly covered container for up to one week.
Lemon Glaze
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Whisk the confectioners’ sugar and 3 tablespoons lemon juice together until thick, smooth and spreadable, adding more lemon juice, 1 teaspoon at a time, if necessary to achieve the right consistency.
Lemon-Cranberry Snowballs, a variety typically called Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Teacakes, include grated lemon zest and dried cranberries.
(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Lemon-Cranberry Snowballs
Whatever you call them — Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Teacakes or Snowballs — adding grated lemon zest and chewy dried cranberries gives this classic cookie a fresh twist.
Makes 32 cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
½ cup confectioners’ sugar (plus more for dusting)
Grated zest of 2 lemons
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 ¼ cups (9 ounces) sifted cake flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped, toasted walnuts
½ cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine the butter and ½ cup confectioners’ sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Using and electric mixer set on high speed, beat together until light and creamy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer to low speed and gradually beat in the flour, salt, and chopped walnuts. Stir the cranberries in by hand.
Scoop the dough by level tablespoons (about ¾ ounce) and roll into balls. Refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Place the balls 2 inches apart on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake the cookies until set but not brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Cool slightly for 3 to 5 minutes before removing them from the baking sheet and rolling in additional confectioners’ sugar. When completely cool, roll again in more sugar to coat completely. Store in a tightly covered container for up to one week.
O’Connor is a San Diego-based food writer and author of seven cookbooks. Her latest book is “Cake, I Love You,” published by Chronicle Books (2017).
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December 16, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Lemon adds a twist to traditional Christmas cookie recipes - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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