Lemon Sugar Cookies
(adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod)
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon saltZest of 2 large lemons1 1/2 cups granulated sugar1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature1 large egg1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice1/2 cup granulated sugar for rolling cookies
First, preheat the oven to 375 and spray the cookie sheet with baking spray.
In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or in a bowl with a big spoon if you're an OG), cream together the butter and the sugar until it's light and fluffy. I will just let that sucker go for days. I read somewhere that at Momofuku Milk Bar, they will seriously let the mixer go for 10 minutes. It makes the butter lighter or something. No joke, it makes the cookies better. I swear. When the butter is super light and fluffy (Or you're done sifting your dry ingredients, which is how I time my creaming process. We'll get there. Stick with me.) pour in your one egg (which you have no doubt cracked into a separate bowl because you have watched Food Network like a good little girl), your vanilla, the lemon zest, and the lemon juice.
Side Note: Can someone get me a microplane? I have a box grater with side with really small holes and that's the extent of my zesting ability. It makes recipes like this kind of the step-by-step process of how to get carpal tunnel. Side note over.
Dry ingredients! Sift (I guess. I never do. Ina Garten said one time that it wasn't super necessary and I took that as license to literally NEVER sift. I'm lazy) the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a separate bowl. When the wet ingredients are completely incorporated into the butter and sugar, SLOOOOOWLY pour the dry ingredients into mixer. I emphasize slowly because if you do it fast and the mixer is on a high enough speed, you will look like Al Pacino in the scene in "Scarface" where he buries his face into the giant snow drift of cocaine. There will be flour everywhere. So do it slowly. And don't over mix. Because they will be lemony hockey pucks.
When the dough comes together, take out a tablespoon at a time, whether that is by using an actual tablespoon measure, a handy dandy mini ice cream scoop, or your perfectly capable, God given eyes, and roll the dough into a ball. Roll the ball around in the sugar, and then place the ball on your prepared cookie sheet and pop that sucker in the oven. I only put six on a sheet at a time because I am eternally afraid of the cookies spreading too much and making one giant cookie in the oven. It's happened and while it's delicious, this result is neither visually pleasing nor the desired result. So space the cookies accordingly. Bake at 375 for about 8-10 minutes. I made mine a little bigger so they took a few minutes longer. This recipe makes about three dozen or so depending on how big you make them.
Put these guys in an airtight container and keep them for about three days. Or three weeks if you're my boyfriend. He keeps the stuff I give him for seriously a month. He's like "Oh hey babe! I'm eating the cupcakes you gave me!" "... You mean the cupcakes I gave you a week and a half ago?" "Yeah! Is that bad?" And it's not! I'm thrilled he's eating them. I love that he loves them. I would just rather for freshness sake that he love them a tad sooner. I feel like two week old cupcakes are not the correct project on which to judge my baking prowess. But I digress.
These cookies are soft. They are chewy. They are crispy. They are seriously everything. They are an oasis of sunshine-y goodness in an ocean of 45 degree Sacramento suckiness (Cue Tim rolling his eyes. "45?! I'm from Truckee! That's shorts weather!"). So make them today. Or right now! They will make you want to put on shorts and listen to the Beach Boys. Then immediately take the shorts off because it's January and if you go to Target like that, people will look at you funny. Trust me.
