Utterly-Buttery Lemon Cookies

Where has six days gone since my last post? I don’t know why, but it seems to have been a little hectic at home with one thing and another for me. Tut-tut, I am a bad girl too for neglecting you with some sort of sugar craving bake! I will try to make it up to you now with a gorgeous cookie bake I am posting here.

I would like to share with you these exceedingly delicious, light, crispy, buttery, lemon cookies. It would be sacrilege to keep this bake to myself and you know how much I enjoying sharing my bakes with you! Not only are these cookies divine to eat, they are also very easy to make and bake!

The butter and lemon tease and excite taste buds as they melt-in-the-mouth. Sensational, Mr. R. (hubby) quoted on his third cookie for testing on taste and likability! As you may well know, Mr. R. is my leading official taster for baked goods along with his sidekick Mr. P. his colleague. I visualise that they both will be tucking into a cookie or two come break time, after ensuring a few cookies made their way into Mr. R.’s lunchbox.

Utterly-Buttery Lemon Cookies

Makes approximately 20 cookies

Ingredients
125g (4½ oz) softened butter
Finely grated zest 1 lemon, preferably un-waxed
50g (2 oz) caster sugar
150g (5 oz) self-raising flour
Icing sugar, for dusting the cookies

You will need 2 baking trays, greased with a little butter.

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C /375°F/Gas mark 5.

In a large bowl add the butter, caster sugar and finely grated lemon zest. Beat together until light and fluffy, add the flour and mix thoroughly – use your hands to help bring the dough into a ball towards the end. Dust your hands with a little flour and taking a teaspoonful of dough at a time, roll into a small ball and place onto the baking tray. Repeat this process until all the dough is used, leaving a small gap for expansion during baking around each cookie. With the back of a fork, slightly press down on top of each cookie to flatten them out to leave a fork indentation pattern. Place the trays in the oven, and bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden, check every few minutes to ensure they don’t overcook. When they are ready, cool on the trays for 10 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack. Once cold, dust over with icing sugar.

Lastly, pop those feet-up, arm yourself with a cookie and take yourself on a journey to Utterly-Buttery Lemon Cookie wonderland!

Easter Biscuits

Easter biscuits are made across Britain and traditionally they are served after church on Easter Sunday. They are presented tide in a bundle of three to represent the Holy Trinity.

These little biscuits are part of our traditional heritage here at Easter in Britain and eaten alongside ‘hot cross buns’, ‘Simnel cake’, and abundant quantities of chocolate being in the form of Chocolate Easter Eggs. It's also tradition in my household to have a ‘Easter Nest Chocolate Cake’ .

If you are lucky, you may even find Easter Bunny hiding his Chocolate Easter Eggs for children armed with little baskets to go ‘Easter Egg Hunting’, seeking out Easter Bunnies chocolate Eggs and collecting them to eat, oh what fun!

Easter Biscuits

They will keep well for a week in an airtight container.

Makes around 18-20

Ingredients
150g (5 oz) softened butter
125g (4½ oz) caster sugar, plus a little extra for sprinkling
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
250g (9 oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp mixed spice
40g (1½ oz) currants
10g (½ oz) mixed citrus peel

You will also need 2 large baking trays lined with non-stick parchment paper. 7cm (3 in) fluted round cutter.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together until fluffy and light in colour. Beat in the egg yolks until fully incorporated, and then beat in all the remaining ingredients until it forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and roll out to about 5mm (approx ¼ in) thickness. Cut out rounds of biscuits with 7cm (3 in) fluted round cutter, re-rolling the trimmings until all used up. Place onto the prepared baking trays leaving a little space apart. Bake for 15-18 minutes until pale and golden. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar over each biscuit from the oven and then leave on a wire rack to fully cool. Stack into a bunch of three and tie each stack with a ribbon to serve and represent the Holy Trinity.

Lastly, sit back in wonder of what delights you have created, and sample these heavenly creations with a glass of cold milk....mmmmmmmm.

Iced Shortbread Biscuits (Cookies)

I assume I am not alone in buying foodie magazines am I? I can guarantee I always find something to catch my eye and bookmark to make for a later date, but in my case I hardly ever seem to get around to it – tut –tut -tut! I must try in future to rectify this more because there are definitely some gorgeous bakes in those glossy pages. Well, I have kept to my word this time as I came across an article called “Baking with Dad” in the April issue of Sainsbury’s magazine which were all Easter treats. I spotted some gorgeous iced shortbread biscuits (cookies) in the shape of butterflies that are so very beautiful I just knew I had to try and recreate them, maybe I haven’t given them full justice they deserve but they were fun to make!

Iced Shortbread Biscuits

You can make these cookies up to 3 days ahead and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 16

Ingredients
150g (5 oz) butter, softened
75g (3 oz) light muscovado sugar
150g (5 oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
75g (3 oz) cornflour
Pinch of salt
I medium egg white
200g (7 oz) icing sugar, sifted
Red & yellow edible food colouring (optional)
You will also need
2 baking sheets lined with non-stick baking parchment
Easter cutters of choice

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/fan 130°C/300°F/Gas mark 2.

In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add the flour, cornflour, pinch of salt and mix until it forms a ball. Roll out onto a lightly floured surface to 4mm (approx ¼ in) thick. Cut out shapes with cutters and reroll the dough as necessary. Using a plate knife or fish slice, put the shortbreads onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

For The Icing, lightly beat the egg whites, then gradually add the icing sugar and continue beating until it forms soft peaks. To decorate the shortbread, pipe an outline around each biscuit. Separate the icing into two bowls and add a few drops of edible food colouring to each. Stir in a little more water to make a runner icing for “flooding” consistency. Fill the centres of the biscuits with coloured icing and leave to set.

If you are feeling creative, keep a little of the white icing back to add details to the shapes once the coloured icing has set.

Note: this recipe contains raw egg whites.


Lastly, sit back in wonder of what delights you have created, and sample these heavenly creations.

Citrus Cream Cookies

Spring just being on the horizon here in England, these little cookies absolutely reflects that freshness of this season, and would equally be in keeping served with other treats at Easter for afternoon tea.

I do like citrus flavours in my bakes and these citrus cookies truly fit the bill of citrus-ness. I used two different sized cookie cutters to reveal the lush citrus buttercream sandwiched in the centre of each cookie. Certainly the same size cookie cutter could be used however; it will cut down the amount of cookies you can make from the batch of dough.

Citrus Cream Cookies

Makes approximately 12 cookies (depending on size of cookie cutters used)

Ingredients
180g butter, softened
1 tsp finely grated lime zest
80g icing sugar
225g plain flour
40g cornflour
Filling
125g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
160g icing sugar, sifted
Icing sugar for dusting

You will require 2 baking trays lined with non-stick baking parchment
Two cookie cookies the same shape one larger (6cm) one smaller (4 cm)

Method

Add the butter, lime zest and icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy then fold in the flour and cornflour until fully combined. Tip out onto a surface and knead until smooth then wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes until firm.

Preheat the oven 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/ gas mark 4.

Roll out half the dough between sheets of cling film and using a flower-shaped cutter or cutter of your choice, cut out 12 larger shapes. Add any scraps of dough to the remaining half of dough and roll out as before and cut out 12 smaller size shapes. Leave a gap between each cookie on the prepared baking trays to ensure they don’t stick together when baked. (Make sure the large shapes are on one tray and the smaller shapes on another.) Bake in the preheated oven for 5-6 minutes for the smaller shaped cookies and 7-6 for larger shaped cookies, until lightly browned. Place on wire racks to cool.

To make the citrus buttercream; put all the filling ingredients into a bowl and beat together until smooth and creamy. Spread the filling on each of the larger cookies and sandwiched together with a smaller cookie. Dust with icing sugar.

Lastly, take a cookie, sit back, eat and enjoy!