Heavenly Lemon Surrender!

What is more summertime than ice cold lemonade? Nothing, I tell you! Our neighbors and I decided this weekend would be a good time for a garage sale, and to sweeten the deals, the kids were out selling blueberry iced tea, coffee, and lemon/limeade. Not from a powder mix mind you! Fresh squeezed, ten lemons and six limes, until 2 a.m.! So I still had some lemon juice reserved and the lemon peel, and decided that a zingy lemon cookie would have to be made. This was done the following night, until 3 a.m. Yes, I have a problem, but I can quit whenever I feel like it, and if I needed sleep, then I would eventually pass out... right?

So, this recipe was found on the web, but I had to fix it, because it had tons of scathing reviews that it was all wrong and didn't work. I figured out the problem (a butter, flour ratio issue and construction problem) and added extra lemon and zing and I am excited to make it again and try doing a batch with candied ginger. So, here it is kids, a wonderful cookie that is a little pucker, very sweet and so very summertime!

Lemon Zinger Cookies

Ingredients

• 4 C sugar
• 1/2 C lemon zest, about 6 to 8 lemons
• 5 1/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsps salt
• 2 C (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes room temp
• 5 egg yolks
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 3/4 C lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixer with paddle, add sugar and lemon zest. Process until sugar and zest are well mixed, about 20 seconds. Scrape into a large mixing bowl. Reserve about 1/2 cup of lemon sugar in a separate bowl for later use.
Add flour, baking powder and salt into mixer and mix just until combined. Add cold butter into flour mixture and process with short pulses until mixture resembles cornmeal and no large lumps of butter remain. Add the sugar and lemon mixture and mix well. I found my mixer (kitchenaide) nearing capacity, so a cover with the shoot is recommended but if you are careful, its not necessary.


In a medium bowl, mix egg yolks, vanilla extract and lemon juice together.


While the mixer is running, slowly add egg/lemon juice mixture and mix until well combined and dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 15 to 30 seconds. You may need to add more flour (1 Tblsp at a time if it is still too soft)


Scrape the dough into a large bowl and refrigerate overnight. Use a tsp to scoop the dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.

make sure the ball isn't too big; btw: the quarter was clean!

Take the dough balls and roll the tops into the reserved lemon sugar. Do NOT press! Leave in dough balls! If you press them, they might flatten out so much that they risk burning.

Bake the cookies until slightly browned, about 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper with the cookies from the tray to a cooling rack and cool completely. Enjoy with a tall glass of cold milk or iced lemonade if you want the full citrus experienced (fresh squeezed!).

This recipe makes A LOT of dough! I made three dozen before I had to call it quits. I belive I could still have another two dozen. This dough freezes well though. I roll them into logs, in wax paper so I can just cut into discs, peel off the paper and bake!