lemon cloud tea cookies

lemon cloud 1

It’s Wednesday. Hump day. The day that has developed a nasty habit, lately, of providing a rather unwelcome realization of how long the week really is. Sometimes, it’s completely necessary to treat yourself in order to make it through the rest of the week without losing your mind. I plan to get a little make-it-through-the-week boost tonight by going to hang out with dogs & puppies at the animal shelter. And Brandon is making fresh bread today (win!). Maybe if you need a little boost but don’t get to hang out with puppies or have someone bake you fresh bread, you can treat yourself with these cookies.

Sometimes, I want dessert, but I don’t want it to be super sweet. More often than not, I want my dessert to have some sort of fruit component to it. These cookies are fluffy and light, barely sweet, and pack a fresh citrus-y punch, and totally satisfy my weird dessert preferences.

lemon cloud 2

Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies
recipe adapted slightly from Joy the Baker
makes about 48 small cookies (recipe is pretty easily halved, though!)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon or orange extract (or, you could do what I did an add a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice)
Zest from a lemon or orange (it’s up to you how much you want to use. I used the zest from about 3/4 of a lemon and it was fantastic)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
  3. Combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on low speed with the paddle until well mixed.  Increase the speed to medium and continue beating until light, about 2 minutes.
  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Batter may look broken and curdled.  Beat in the extracts and zest.
  5. Decrease the speed to low and beat in the flour.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the dough a few good turns with your spatula to bring it all together.
  6. Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough on a pan lined with parchment paper.  Space the balls about 2-inches apart.  After all the cookies have been placed on the pan, flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough.  Bake the cookies until they become golden, about 20 minutes.  Slide the parchment paper off the pan to cool completely.
  7. Keep the cookies between sheets of wax paper or parchment paper in an airtight container.

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