Lemon Chip Cookies

Lemon Chip Cookies - made dough August 17, 2013 from Mon Cheri Cooking School

This is one of my favorite cookies.  I've had this recipe for years, ever since I took a holiday cookie baking class at Mon Cheri Cooking School (which sadly I've found out has closed).  I used to make it often but you haven't seen it on my blog until now because I haven't made it in years.  Why?  Because some years ago, the King Arthur Flour website stopped selling mini lemon chips and that's what's needed for this recipe.  Fortunately, I had included this recipe in a tastebook I had made of some of my favorite recipes and a viewer commented that Nuts.com sold lemon chips.  Hello?  They sell lemon chips, you say?  I was excited to learn that, intended to go order some, got distracted by ten million other things and only recently remembered it again.  I also thought to check out amazon (of course) and did find one external vendor who sold them as well.  But Nuts.com had a more competitive price once you factored in shipping so I went with them instead.

This recipe is the single biggest reason I used to buy lemon extract a couple of bottles at a time.  It was once part of my Christmas cookie gift packs every year.  It's a crisp, buttery, lemony cookie perfectly sweetened by the lemon chips and incorporating the crunch of the toasted almond bits.  You know I like a cookie when it defies everything I normally like and don't like about cookies: instead of being thick and chewy, these are thin and crisp.  It's got nuts when I normally don't like nuts in my cookies.  It uses an extract when I normally only prefer baking with vanilla extract as most other extracts are too artificial in flavor.  None of that matters to me when it comes to these cookies.  I can pop them in my mouth and eat them like crackers if I'm not careful. I don't think these photograph well, at least not by me or my camera, but don't let the pictures fool you - these taste much better than they look.

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon lemon zest, finely grated

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons lemon extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup blanched almonds, ground

½ cup lemon chips

1.     With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, cream the butter with sugar on medium speed until creamy.  Add the egg yolk, lemon zest and lemon extract.  Decrease speed to low and gradually add the flour; increase speed to medium and ensure mixing is thorough.  Remove bowl from mixer and fold in the ground almonds and lemon chips by hand.  Transfer mixture to a work surface and roll into a log about 2 ½” in diameter.  Wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator until firm. If you freeze the cookies longer than an hour, let it thaw for at least 10 minutes before slicing or else the dough may crumble.

2.     Remove from refrigerator and return to work surface.  Slice dough into ¼” slices.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and arrange cookies about 1” apart.  Sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar.  Bake in a 325°F oven for about 20 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden in color.  Transfer cookies to cooling racks and let cool completely.