Bridal Shower for my sweet friend Brianne yesterday so I contributed these beauties which looked and tasted divine!  Not hard to make, a little time consuming but not too bad.  The recipe comes from “Cooking Classy”.  The next time I make these I will probably double the amount of lemon extract in both the cookies and frosting, they were lemony but it was really subtle.

cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup unflavored shortening, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

zest of 1 large lemon, about 1 tablespoon

1 egg

1 egg white

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla

frosting

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

2 1/2 – 3 tablespoons lemon juice

yellow food coloring, yellow sanding sugar

For cookies:

1  Whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt and set aside.

2  In mixer bowl, beat butter, shortening, sugar and lemon zest on medium until very pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

3  Add egg and mix until combined then add egg white, lemon extract and vanilla and mix until combined.

4  Slowly add in dry ingredients with mixer running just until combined.

5  Transfer dough to airtight container and refrigerate 2 hours.  Preheat oven to 375 during last 10 minutes of refrigeration.

6  Scoop dough out in 1/4 cup measures one at a time and roll into a ball.  Place ball on lightly floured surface, sprinkle top lightly with flour, then using a flat, smooth surface (I used a large metal spatula), press and evenly flatten dough to 1/2″ so you should have a 2 2/3″ – 2 3/4″ cookie.  Transfer cookie to Silpat lined cookie sheet (or a baking stone works great too) and repeat process with remaining dough.

7  Bake 9 – 11 minutes.  Allow to cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes before removing.  Cool completely then frost.

For frosting:

Beat all ingredients until smooth and fluffy.  Mix in food coloring if desired and sprinkle with sugar if desired.

I doubled the recipe and it made about 36 cookies.