Recipes Hand Formed Cookies

Italian Lemon Cookies

Name: Italian Lemon Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 11 min
Total time: 31 min
Yield: 48 cookies
Ingredients: 3 1/2 cups flour; 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 3 large eggs; 1/2 cup sugar; 4 ounces butter, softened; 1 lemon, zest of, grated; 1/2 cup whole milk; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 cups powdered sugar; 3/4 tablespoon orange juice; colored candy sprinkles

(5)

Recipe by Lubie

Want more from Genius Kitchen?

Watch on your Apple TV, Roku, or Fire TV and your iOS, Fire, or Android device.

Learn More

“Yummy little Italian cookies that you can serve at holiday gatherings. Be creative! You can shape them however you like!”

5

people discussing

Join In Now

Top Review by

GaylaJ

These cookies were very good, but I would probably make a few changes when I make them again. I think the flour and milk should be added alternately--I felt I was overbeating, as it took quite a bit of mixing to incorporate the milk into the stiff dough after all the flour was added. Although the butter will inhibit gluten development and help keep the cookies tender, I suppose it is just stuck in my head that cookie dough should not be beaten after the flour is mixed in to avoid developing the gluten. I found it difficult to roll the dough into 24-inch ropes and keep it an even thickness, so I divided the dough again so I only had to deal with 12 inches at a time. (You'll probably want to flour your board before trying to work with the dough.) I also had a problem twisting and making loops out of the 3-inch segments (at least the way I interpreted the directions), so I basically ended up with small circles. Unless I was making larger cookies, next time I would skip the labor-intensive roping and shaping and just shape them into slightly-flattened balls. With cookies of this size, the shape seems to get lost anyway by the time they are baked and decorated. I was trying to stay true to the recipe since I hoped to submit a representative photo, but in the future will take you up on your suggestion to shape them however I like (which for me will be the easy way). :) After tasting the baked cookies prior to icing them, even though I added extra lemon zest, the lemon flavor just didn't seem to come through so I used lemon juice rather than orange to thin the icing and just dipped the tops of the cookies in it instead of brushing it on. Next time, I think I would substitute a bit of lemon extract for some of the vanilla in the dough.I hope I don't sound negative, because we did enjoy these cookies--thanks for posting the recipe!

See all reviews

Upload Tweak Ask

1 view more photos

Top Review by

GaylaJ

5

people discussing

Join In Now

See All Reviews

Make a Tweak Ask a Question Add Your Photo