Piped Lemon Butter Cookies With Lemon Buttercream Frosting Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, milk and extract. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and chill for 2 hours. , Preheat oven to 350°. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a 2-in. cookie cutter dipped in flour. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired. , Bake until the edges just begin to brown, 8-9 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350*. Grease several baking sheets or coat with nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a food processor, process the butter and sugars in on/off pulses, then continuously until well blended and smooth. Add the egg yolks,lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla and lemon extract and process until evenly incorporated. Add the flour mixture and process just until thoroughly incorporated; do not over process. The dough should be faily soft to facilitate piping; if it seems to stiff, add up to 4 tbls water, pulsing to incorporate. Spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2" open star tip. Pipe 1 1/2" wide swirls onto a baking sheet, spacing about 2" apart. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the upper third of oven for 7-10 minutes, or until just tinged with brown at the edges. Reverse sheets halfway through baking from front to back to ensure even browning. Transfer the sheet to a wirer ack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly -- 1-2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled.
• FOR THE FROSTING:.
• In a food processor, process the powdered sugar and lemon zest until the zest in evenly incorporated, about 2 minutes. Add the butter, and process until very well blended -- and smooth. Add 1 1/2 tsps lemon juice and food coloring, if using, and process till smooth and well blended. If necessary, add a bit more powdered sugar to stiffen the frosting or a bit more lemon juice to thin it so that is of piping consistency. Spoon the frosting into a pastry bag fitted with 1/2" open star tip. Pipe 1-1 1/2" frosting swirls onto the cookies. let stand until the frosting completely sets -- at least 1 hour. Store in a single layer or layered with wax paper in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 2 days.Refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Steps:

• In a small bowl, beat butter and confectioners' sugar until blended. Beat in citrus zest and lemon juice. Gradually beat in flour., Shape into a disk; wrap. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm enough to roll., Preheat oven to 325°. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-in. round cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets., Bake 16-19 minutes or until edges are light brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking tray with a silicone baking mat (such as Silpat®) or parchment paper.
• Cream sugar and 1 cup butter together in a bowl with an electric mixer on high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg yolks, 1 at a time, until well incorporated and fluffy; don't overmix. Blend in all of the zest from the lemon and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (if you have extra juice, reserve it for the frosting).
• Combine flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a bowl and whisk to blend. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl with the butter-sugar mixture and mix in on low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom with a spatula until cookie dough is evenly blended.
• Use a 1 1/2-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out 12 dough balls and set, evenly spaced, onto the prepared baking sheet. Don't flatten them, you can leave them just as they come out of the scoop. If you don't have a scoop, just shape walnut-sized balls by hand.
• Bake in the preheated oven until bottoms are very lightly browned and tops begin to appear crackled, 10 to 11 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 2 to 3 minutes and then very carefully move to a cooling rack to complete cooling (they will be very soft still).
• Repeat with remaining dough until all cookies are baked and cooled.
• When cookies are cooled, make the buttercream frosting by whipping 3 cups of confectioners' sugar with 1/2 cup butter; start on low speed until butter and sugar begin to combine, then turn up the speed slowly. When sugar and butter are mostly combined, add in lemon juice and whip until creamy and smooth. Check consistency and flavor; you can add a little extra lemon juice or milk if you want a creamier consistency. But if you want the texture fairly stiff you may not need extra liquid at this point.
• Frost the cooled cookies as desired and allow the buttercream to set before stacking or storing the cookies.