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Lemon Almond Cookies
These delightful Lemon Almond Cookies are soft, buttery and tender while slightly chewy in the middle with bright lemon and sweet almond flavor. They are inspired by traditional Italian lemon cookies and are perfect with a cup of coffee, especially around the holidays.
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoon lemon zest from 2 small lemons or 1 ½ large lemons
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk room temperature
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 ¾ cups (250g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup (70g) fine almond flour or almond meal
- ¾ cup flaked almonds for rolling
Instructions
- Combine butter, sugar and lemon zest in large bowl and beat together to "cream" the ingredients with a wide rubber spatula for 1-2 minutes until pale and fluffy. You can also use an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. TIP: you can rub the lemon zest and sugar together between your fingertips to help release the natural oils in the lemon and infuse even more lemon flavor into the cookies.
- Add egg and mix until well incorporated. Mix in egg yolk, vanilla extract and almond extract, then mix in lemon juice.
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and fold them in gently. Before all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, add the ground almonds or almond meal and fold it in. It’s ok if there are some streaks of almond – it creates a nice texture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a 1-oz cookie scoop to portion just over 1 oz balls of dough, or divide the dough into 20 equal portions and roll into smooth balls. Coarsely chop the sliced almonds and place them in a bowl. Roll each dough ball evenly in almonds then place onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until puffed and cracked on top, and still a bit soft in the middle. Do not over-bake. Transfer baking trays to a wire rack and let cookies cool for 2 minutes on the trays, then transfer individually to the rack to finish cooling.
