14th of December

How to make lemon cookies for Christmas

Foto Susi Baking with Susi – Part II

The following recipe for lemon cookies is one of my favorites. When I first read the recipe I was a little bit skeptical. Lemons and Christmas??? Usually I bake according to the rule: the sweeter the better. But well, one of my best friends and me, we once decided to bake at least one new sort of Christmas cookies every year and this time lemon cookies had the turn. Honestly - it was the best decision we could have made. These cookies are pretty delicious and very sweet indeed. Even my boyfriends´ niece and nephew who really have a sweet tooth love them (they love them so much that they come to our home every year to bake them with us and NO – they don´t leave any for us behind. They take them all home and I always have to bake some for us again ;-). This is definitely the best proof that it is worth making them.)

What you need for the dough:

  • 250g soft butter
  • 200g sugar
  • A pinch of salt
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 2 organic lemons
  • 500 g flour
  • 1tsp baking powder

    • For the icing:
  • 200g powdered sugar and some warm water and some fresh lemon juice
  1. Stir the butter with sugar, salt and the egg yolks until the mass is fluffy. Then grate the lemon peel first and then juice the lemons. Put 2-3 tbs of juice and as much lemon peel as you want to the mass.
  2. Mix the flour with baking powder and strain it in the mass. Mix all ingredients now properly and put the dough in the fridge for around one hour.
  3. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it to a thin dough. Cut out cookies with all types of cookie cutters you love.
  4. The cookies need a stove temperature of 180°C (baking function) and around 9 minutes to be ready. Check carefully if you can move them easily on the baking paper, then they should be ready. They should have a golden yellow color.
  5. When the cookies are ready and cooled down you can mix the powdered sugar with some of the lemon juice and 1-2 tbs warm water. The icing must be spreadable but not too liquid. Baste the cookies with the icing and let the icing dry out. Now you can enjoy the lemon cookies.
Check this out: No need to throw the mass of egg white away – an additional kind of cookies is quickly done. Try out macaroons with coconut or hazelnuts… you find numerous recipes for these nice and easy sweets online, which can enrich your cookie plate!

✦ You can download the recipe as pdf here: Lemon Cookies