Hi there! I've been meaning to write, but I keep getting sucked into other things, like ripping out the vines that keep threatening to consume our fence and trying to find curtains that don't look like they belong in Arsenic and Old Lace. Yes, things have been very, very exciting lately!
For now, the vines are conquered (for a few days at least), and I am closer to having the curtains finished (or, rather, I have curtain hardware, yards of fabric, and thread), so I can tell you about these citrus sugar cookies.
Sugar cookies are one of my favorite cookies to make. I like hearing the click, click, click of my rolling pin as it gently flattens out the dough and then pressing down evenly on the cookie cutter to cut out a perfect shape. The best part about this recipe is that the dough is very easy to work with, provided your kitchen isn't sweltering, and you get to enjoy the flavors of three types of citrus flavor in one cookie. Yum!
Notes:
The Fiori di Sicilia extract is a nice combination of citrus and vanilla; if you don't have it, you can leave it out. I like to roll cookies out between a piece of parchment paper and plastic wrap, as opposed to rolling them out with flour, because it keeps the scraps from getting too floury, and the "second roll" of the scraps will yield cookies more similar to the first roll of the dough. Also, I like to freeze the rolled dough (on a cookie sheet to prevent wrinkling) before cutting it so I can get nice edges for the cookies. Freezing the dough again, before the cut cookies are transferred to the baking sheet, keeps the cookies from getting distorted when you transfer them. That being said, if you like to roll cookies on the countertop with flour and transfer them directly to the baking sheet, go ahead and do it that way. Now that we've moved, I've found the freezing process to be a bit more challenging since we now have a side-by-side refrigerator. If you have a side-by-side refrigerator and want to freeze the dough, you'll have to start the rolling process with the dough divided into 4 or 5 pieces instead of 2. Also, no matter what kind of freezer you have, you'll want to make these in a kitchen that is cool enough to keep the butter from melting when you work with the dough. When I made these, it was super hot and I had to break down and turn on the air conditioning to get the dough to roll and cut correctly. Pay more attention to the cookies towards the end of the baking time because they can go from a nice golden color to burnt rather quickly.
Adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook
Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
¼ teaspoon orange extract
⅛ teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons cold water
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon lime zest
Glaze Ingredients:
2¼ cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon orange zest
½ teaspoon lemon zest
¼ teaspoon lime zest
Yields about 4 dozen 2-inch cookies
Beat, Add, Divide, Chill:
Cream the butter with the powdered sugar and honey, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add all of the extracts, zest, and salt, and beat until they are incorporated. Add the egg mixture (egg plus water) and flour all at once, and beat until the mixture becomes smooth. Shape the dough into 2 to 3 discs (or 4 to 5 discs, depending on your freezer width) and wrap them in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the fridge to chill for at least an hour, or overnight. At this point, you can also freeze the dough.
Roll and Bake:
Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and allow it to warm up for a few minutes. If the dough is too cold when it is rolled out, it will crack and be difficult to work with. Place the dough in the middle of a piece of parchment paper, and put a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the dough. Roll the dough, adjusting the plastic wrap as needed to prevent large wrinkles, until it is about ⅛-inch thick. Run your palm lightly over the top of the plastic wrap to determine if the dough is evenly rolled. If you detect any spots where it is thicker, gently roll that spot until the entire piece of dough is the same thickness. Be careful that you don't make it too thin though. Slide the dough (with the parchment paper and plastic wrap) onto a cookie sheet, and place the dough and the cookie sheet in the freezer. Repeat with the remaining dough discs.
Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with Silpat mats or parchment paper. Remove the first piece of rolled dough from the freezer, and take off the plastic wrap. Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into your desired shapes, then transfer the piece of dough back to the freezer. Repeat with the remaining rolled dough pieces. Going back to the first piece of (now cut) dough, remove it again from the freezer and transfer the cut shapes with an off-set spatula onto the prepared cookie sheets. Fill the two sheets, and bake the cookies at 350°F for 8-12 minutes (depending on your cookie size and thickness), or until they are set and the edges are just about to turn golden brown. Allow them to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Gather the dough scraps together, and form them into a ball. Roll out the dough ball, and repeat the process until all of the scraps are gone.
Glaze:
Once the cookies are cooled, make the glaze. In a medium-sized bowl, combine all of the glaze ingredients, and stir with a spatula until it is homogenous. If it is too thick, add some additional orange juice. If it is too thin, add some additional powdered sugar. Line a small drinking glass with a piping bag or a small Ziplock bag (the cup will support the bag while you fill it with the glaze). Scrape the glaze into the prepared bag. Close the bag and snip off a very tiny bit of one of the bag’s corners (you can always cut it larger if you need to). Pipe some of the glaze onto a cookie, leaving a small border around the edge of the cookie. You don't have to fill in the entire cookie surface, so start by using less glaze and then increase the amount if you need to. Use an off-set spatula to smooth the glaze over the top, and set the cookie aside to dry. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Once the glaze is fully dried, store the cookies in an airtight container between layers of wax paper at room temperature.
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