Soft and tender lemon butter cookies with a crackly sugar top. They're perfect for citrus season, and to welcome Spring! Enjoy them alongside a nice cup of tea.
½cup100g granulated sugarfor rolling the cookies before baking
¾ cup 90g powdered icing sugarfor rolling the cookies before baking
Instructions
Add the sugar and lemon zest to a large bowl and use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar. This helps to release essential oils from the zest and infuse more lemon flavor into the cookie dough. Add the eggs, melted butter and vanilla, and whisk until combined. Add the lemon juice and whisk until smooth.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold the flour in gently until the ingredients are evenly incorporated. At this stage the cookie dough will look more like a batter – it will be quite soft and sticky. That's how it should be. Do not add more flour.
Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. This step ensures that the cookies will hold their shape better as they bake and will make the cookie dough easier to handle as you shape and roll.
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF and line2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll heaped tablespoons of dough into balls using floured hands if the dough is too sticky. Roll the balls evenly in granulated sugar and then roll them in icing sugar so they are generously coated. Place the dough balls onto your baking sheets leaving 2 inches of space between them.
Bake for 12-14 minutes until the cookies are just very lightly golden on the bottom and cracked at the surface. Do not over bake them.