Lemon Sugar Cookies with Lemon Royal Icing

My hunt for the perfect sugar cookie has been long and arduous.  Mr. wants a soft Loft House style cookie.  The kids want cut outs.  I like easy.  In typical family fashion, everyone can't be satisfied at the same time no matter what I make.  So I decided that the baker trumps all, so I set about testing for my own perfect sugar cookie.

I came across this versatile recipe several years ago and my favorite way to make it is rolled ball-style.  I don't want a large cookie, and shapes take a lot of work to make cute, and honestly, when I'm in the mood for a cookie it's usually to eat, not to satisfy my very dormant artistic penchant. If it's not to eat, then it's to give away, and then I'm mass-producing so why in the heck would I make the process harder by baking something I had to CAREFULLY decorate? I'm not crazy.

These two-bite drop cookies are my favorite!  The brightness of the lemon flavoring, combined with the crunch of the Royal icing make these a pure delight to eat.  They are a cinch to form, and so easy to frost!  The shiny icing makes them look fancy and scrumptious.  The color options are endless so have fun with pastels, brights, or holiday themes.

I'm still working on my artistic flair.  A couple years ago I made chocolate sugar cookies in letter shapes with some major decorating using varying consistencies of frosting.  This was the tutorial I used, from Sweet Sugar Belle.  She has videos showing the different consistencies of frosting, extremely helpful.  It was super fun and the kids & Mr. enjoyed it immensely, but it was a lot of work, and lots of cleaning out squeeze bottles.  I'll do it again soon, maybe for Easter.  If I can just find those Easter cookie cutters...

For our Lemon Sugar Cookies, the girls got an assembly line going, rolling, and rolling, and rolling...

This time we made St. Patrick's Day goodie bags, posted here, so we colored the frosting the colors of the rainbow.  I was pleased with how they turned out. We went for the "rustic" look.  (read: we frosted 140 cookies; we didn't have all day)

Lemon Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 whole eggs

1 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

5 Tbsp sour cream

5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

Cream shortening, butter, sugar.  Add eggs, lemon, vanilla, & sour cream.  Mix until creamy.  Add sifted dry ingredients: salt, soda, & flour.  Chill for several hours or overnight.  Roll into balls about 1.5 Tbsp in size.  Leave in ball shape, do not flatten!  Bake at 350° for 12-14 min.  They should be lightly brown around the edges, but not too.  You don't want them to fall, but stay dome-shaped.  Makes approximately 60-70 cookies.

See how glossy the frosting is?  We used Wilton food coloring gels, or paste.  I love the vibrancy you get from paste, and a little goes a long way.  Also the paste helps keep the frosting consistency, rather than making it runny by using liquid coloring.  The icing hardens, gets shiny, and the color deepens even more. 

Lemon Royal Icing

1 bags (2 lbs) powdered sugar

1/2 cup + 2 Tbps Meringue Powder

2/3 - 3/4 cup warm water

1-2 Tbsp lemon extract

Combine sugar & meringue powder in bowl using whisk attachment.  

Add the extract to the warm water, then slowly add to the dry ingredients.

Mix on low, frosting will look liquid-like.

Turn up to medium and mix for 7-10 minutes until fluffy and peaks form.  Watch closely as times are approximate.  Stop when frosting becomes stiff.  Royal icing will keep for up to a month.  Keep in an extremely air-tight container, on the counter or in the fridge.

* note * This recipe frosts double of the cookie recipe above.

Add food coloring as desired and frost cookies.  Work quickly - Royal Icing hardens fast!

I am sure you'll love these as much as I do!  I'm pretty sure we ate our share of the 140 yesterday.  At two bites, you can easily lose count!

Enjoy!