A box of lemony glazed tea cookies makes an elegant homemade gift.
Photo by Gina Moore
Makes 1½ to 2 dozen
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea leaves
¾ cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups flour, plus more for rolling out dough
½ teaspoon salt
Glaze
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Additional lemon zest, for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl, mix together butter, lemon zest and tea until well combined. Let sit for 30 minutes. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add confectioner’s sugar, flour and salt, and whisk gently. Add butter mixture and combine until a soft dough forms, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour on a clean work surface and roll dough to ¼-inch thick. Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut cookie dough and place cookies on the baking sheets. Continue to reroll the dough and cut out cookies until no dough is left. Bake cookies until slightly brown, about 13–15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking process. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the glaze, whisk confectioner’s sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a small bowl until glaze is thick enough to drizzle. If needed, add more lemon juice until mixture reaches desired consistency. Drizzle the glaze over cookies and allow to dry. Add lemon zest for garnish.
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
Slicing cold cookie dough. If cookie dough is too cold to slice, let it sit for a few minutes to warm up.
Storing cookies. In general, cookies will last for 1 week at room temperature, 10 days in the refrigerator and 3 months in the freezer.
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