Here on Day 2 of my five days of cookies, I present some crispy, citrusy, crazy-good cookies that are not too sweet and go great with a nice cup of steaming hot tea. This recipe is based on “John Thorne’s Lemon Icebox Crumbles,” a recipe I found in my Classic Home Desserts cookbook by Richard Sax (c1994.) The original recipe calls for just a few drops of water or lemon juice, but I found I needed almost a tablespoon of each to form the dough into a ball.
These cookies are so easy to make, with only 5-6 ingredients. And since I bake them on my Pampered Chef bar pans, I know they will come out great since the temperature is evenly distributed through the pan, preventing the bottoms of the cookies from getting too brown or burning.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- Zest of 2 large lemon
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon (more or less) cold water
Preparation
Using a pastry blender or two knives, blend together the butter, flour and lemon zest until the mixture is crumbly.
Add the sugar, egg yolks and fresh lemon juice.
With floured fingers, gently work the mixture into a smooth dough. Add a little bit of water if needed to make the dough form into a ball.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until the dough is firm.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Make small one-inch balls with the dough and place them around 2 inches apart, preferably on your Pampered Chef bar pans or else on lightly greased baking sheets.
Flatten the balls with a fork, making indentations with the tines in each of the cookies.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges start to turn light brown. Let the cookies cool on the pans for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
The cookbook describes these cookies as “ferociously addictive,” and I must admit it’s hard to have just a couple!
Bon appétit!
Eat, drink and be merry!
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Kel's Cafe of All Things Food 
I am SOOOO making these cookies!!! I have a whole bag of lemons just waiting to be used up!
You will love these, Eleanor!
Kelley, the measure for sugar is missing! It occurred to me while I was mixing the flour & butter – I am using about 1 cup of sugar, so hoping that is about what it should be.
Thanks for catching this, Eleanor! I’ve added it to the recipe.
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