Rolled, Short Crust Lemon Cookies
Why do cookies always need to be so complicated?
TLDR: They don’t.
Not anymore anyway! These are made with Short Crust. Yes, that thing that you use to make tart crust. No, not a cookie dough in the slightest.
I’ll tell you what it is though: Easy to assemble. No equipment needed, crumbly, tender and buttery. And because it’s unapologetically slathered in more butter and lemon sugar, and baked in a high temperature, it has this wonderful mixture of textures, and an almost caramel finish in the center. Yes. It’s got it all.
These may not be a show stopping dessert, but they’re sure as hell a great thing to have near by for an afternoon coffee or tea. Or to re-watch seasons of Will & Grace, which if you’re in my apartment on a Sunday afternoon, that’s 100% what’s happening.
ingredients:
For the Short Crust:
250g AP flour
180g (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed.
1 egg yolk
50ml water
1/2 tbsp of salt
1 tbsp granulated sugar
The Filling:
Zest 3 limes + More for garnish in the end
150g granulated Sugar
55g (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
The Glaze
2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Lemon (juiced)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
instructions:
Preheat your oven at 275ºF
In a bowl, combine your flour and salt. Add your cubed butter and with your fingers, pinch the butter so it gets incorporated into the flour, in bites no larger than a pea.
In another small bowl, place your egg yolk, water and sugar and combine well.
Incorporate your wet ingredients in three go’s, shaking the bowl and roughly mixing with a spatula after every small pour. The dough will look dry and unmanageable first. After pre-mixing with a spatula, use your hands to fold it and press it onto itself inside of the bowl. You’ll see how it begins to come together.
Once you have one large mass, place it in a floured countertop so you can knead it.
Get the dough in the shape of a ball, and using the palm of your hand, press the dough and slide away your hand so that you form a trail of stretched dough. You’ll do this twice, in two different directions and then you’ll re-form your dough ball. This method is called fraisage. You’ll do this two to 3 times. You’ll see that each time you gather the dough to make a ball, the dough becomes smoother and shinier. Stop after 3 to 4 times, to avoid the butter in the dough melting too much or becoming too warm.
Cover your dough ball in plastic wrap and pat so that it’s packed into a flat rectangle. Place in the fridge for 30 mins to let cool.
In the meantime, zest your three lemons into a medium sized bowl and add your sugar on top.
Using your hands, you’ll want to massage the lemon zest into the sugar. You’ll see that the aromas of the lemon begin to open and the sugar starts feeling like wet sand. Do this for a few minutes, taste, add the salt, mix again and set aside.
After resting your dough in the fridge, uncover and on a floured surface roll out into a 40 x 25cm rectangle.
Dollop 3/4s of the the room temperature half stick of butter into the rectangle and smear across the entire surface with your hands or using a silicone spatula.
Spoon over your lemon sugar and distribute equally across the surface of the dough.
Then across the longside of the rectangle, create a very narrow, initial fold to begin your rolling. Gently, start pushing the down onto itself so you create a log that is 40cm long, approx.
Use the remaining room temp butter to slather across the surface of the dough log and sprinkle more sugar so it sticks to the butter.
You’ll now want to cut your individual cookies. You can use a knife but the pressure can squeeze the dough a bit. You can also cut a long strand of string and create a knot around the log, so as you start closing the knot onto itself, it cuts the dough without pressing the dough down. You’ll get between 20 and 24 cookies out of your log.
Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 25 to 35 mins.
In the meantime, in a bowl, combine your powdered sugar, the salt and the lemon juice, stirring energetically. You should have a glaze that is very think and opaque.
Let your cookies rest after coming out of the oven in a wire wrack for 3o mins.
Drizzle the glaze on top of your cookies and while the glaze is still liquid, zest one more lemon on top of the glaze.
