I love lemon and have been searching for a good lemon cookie. I used to love the ones that came in packages of three that I used to sometimes eat in elementary school. Whatever company it was made chocolate chip cookies too. These cookies are not the same, but they’re really delicious. They’re incredibly tender, delicate and lemony. As their name suggests, they’d be perfect served at a high tea.

The corn starch in these cookies makes them incredibly delicate.   If you make these cookies, don’t be thrown off by the fact that the recipe doesn’t contain eggs.   It’s not supposed to.  Also, please make sure that your butter is at room temperature, and once you start to make these, I recommend making them all at once.   You don’t want to put the dough in the refrigerator or it will become very difficult to handle.

High Tea Lemon Cookies
Recipe from cookingamerica.net

2 cups butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered (confectioners’) sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cornstarch
Lemon Frosting (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add powdered sugar; mix until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract; beat well. Add flour and cornstarch into butter mixture and mix well until well combined.

Do not refrigerate this dough, as the butter will harden and make the dough unmanageable for rolling to a ball. Using your hands or a small ice cream scoop, form cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Place onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake 15 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Remove from oven, carefully remove from baking sheet, and cool on wire cooling racks as the cookies are very delicate when they’re warm.

When cookies have cooled, dip the top of each cookie into the lemon frosting.

Yield: 6 dozen cookies

High Tea Lemon Cookies Frosting
This recipe makes enough for a double batch of cookies.

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/3 to 1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
4 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar

In a medium bowl, combine butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and powdered sugar; stir until well mixed.   NOTE: Additional lemon juice may be needed to get the frosting thin enough.

One year ago: Cinnamon Applesauce Muffins
Two years ago: Lemon Risotto
Three years ago: Lemon Cake