Chewy Glazed Lemon Sugar Cookies

Chewy Glazed Lemon Sugar Cookies - made dough August 9, 2014 from Lauren's Latest

I have a fondness for soft, thick, chewy cookies. Chocolate chip, chocolate, sugar, vanilla, butter, lemon, even peanut butter. Something to sink my teeth into. Literally. Which I got with this cookie. The dough was super easy to throw together although I must warn you if you portion out the cookie dough balls as generously as I did, you only end up with 7 cookies. I don’t normally mind doing small batch baking but 7 cookies didn’t seem like a prolific return for the investment of dirtying my Kitchen Aid bowl, spatula, cookie scoop, measuring cups and measuring spoons. But I won’t quibble. A soft, chubby, chewy cookie is a soft, chubby, chewy cookie.

To give it some extra lemon zing, I glazed it simply with a thick glaze of confectioners’ sugar and fresh lemon juice, just enough to coat each cookie thickly and set so you don’t have runny glaze all over your fingers when you eat the cookie. I loved the texture on these cookies. Only bake until the edges start to turn golden but the middles aren’t completely dry or cracked. If the middles are high, puffed, and cracked, you’ve overbaked them and they’ll be cakey and possibly dry. What I was less enamoured of though was the flavor. Because  the recipe calls for lemon extract, which I used, there was an artificial tang to them. I’ve baked cookies with lemon extract before and they’ve been fine but that artificial flavor was more pronounced in these cookies. Next time, I’m skipping the extract and adding more zest instead.

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar + an extra 2 tablespoons
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or however much or little for the desired consistency)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar together in stand mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in egg, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon zest. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Scoop onto prepared sheets and flatten slightly with the bottom of a cup dipped in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake 8-9 minutes, cool 2 minutes and transfer to cooling rack.
3. Stir powdered sugar and lemon juice together until smooth. Spread over top of each cookie and let set.