Italian Lemon Cookies
"Yummy little Italian cookies that you can serve at holiday gatherings. Be creative! You can shape them however you like!"
photo by GaylaJ
- Ready In:
- 31mins
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Yields:
-
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
directions
- In a small bowl, sift flour and baking powder together.
- In mixing bowl, beat eggs with sugar until light and lemon colored.
- Add the softened butter and lemon zest.
- Slowly beat in the flour and baking powder.
- Gradually add milk and vanilla.
- Dough should be soft.
- Divide dough into 6 sections.
- Roll out each section into a rope 1/2-inch wide.
- Cut into 3-inch pieces and twist each piece to form a loop.
- Place on a greased baking sheet or a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake in a 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes or until light brown.
- Remove from oven and cool.
- Combine the powdered sugar and enough orange juice to form a thin icing.
- Brush on top of cookies and sprinkle with colored candies.
- Makes about 4 dozen cookies, depending on size and shape of cookie.
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Reviews
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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! -
Made really nice looking cookies but lacked in amount of flaver I was expecting. -
I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla and -
Easy redipe but I added lemon juice in addition to the lemon zest. The family likes the cookies with a lot of lemon flavor. -
Yum,Yum Lubie!This was my first experience with Italian cookies adn I have definatly found a nice alternative to my regular sugar cookies.My dough was very soft so when I rolled it out I added a modest amount of flour so I could handle it,I rolled out a long strips and cut small pieces from it.The icing adds the perfect touch.Thank you for adding variety to my holiday cookie assortment!
Tweaks
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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!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Lubie
France
I'm from Salt Lake City, but I'm living in Seattle, Washington while my husband goes to law school at UW. I love cooking. It's my favorite hobby.
