Christmas cookies!
Who doesn’t love Christmas cookies?
The New York Times is running its annual Christmas Cookie extravaganza and one of their star cooks, Yewande Komolafe, offered up these Lemon Butter Curls.
They are wonderful–lemon wonderfulness to be precise along with a very crisp, short pastry. They’re easy, too.
Here is the cookie recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. There are no leftovers!
Lemon Butter Curl Cookies
December 10, 2023
Ingredients
- Cookie Recipe
- 1 C. salted butter (softened)
- 3/4 C. granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks (room temperature)
- 1 lemon
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
- 2 T. cornstarch
- 1/4 t. fine sea salt
- 1 T. heavy cream
- Glaze Recipe
- 3 C. sifted powdered sugar
- 6 T. fresh lemon juice
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare two large cookie sheets by lining them with parchment.
- Step 2 Cream softened butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer (using the paddle attachment) until the mixture is a soft yellow color and is fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add egg yolks and mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the zest of one lemon to the mixture and mix to combine. Set aside.
- Step 3 In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch and salt together. Add this dry mixture all at once to the butter mixture and mix to combine. Add the heavy cream. Mix to combine. Your ingredients should come together to form a dough.
- Step 4 Prepare a piping bag using a large star tip. Spoon a small amount of the dough into a piping bag. Pipe the dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets. Pipe the dough in “S” shapes (or whatever shape you prefer). This is a stiff dough and it is important to only fill the piping bag with a relatively small amount of the dough at a time so that you can pipe the cookies successfully.Otherwise, it will be too difficult to push the dough through the bag and the tip. Repeat until you have piped all the cookies. Once you have piped the cookies onto the parchment, refrigerate the tray(s) of cookies for about 15 minutes.
- Step 5 Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F. for about 15 minutes. You want the cookies to begin to turn a soft brown around the edges. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool.
- Step 6 While the cookies are cooling, make the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar and the lemon juice until you have a runny consistency. Spoon the glaze over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set out on your counter for the glaze to solidify.
