Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Lemon Shortbread Cookies - made dough August 22, 2021 from Julie Blanner 

2 cups butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar, packed

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon lemon extract

zest of 1 lemon

1. Whip butter until smooth and light in color. Mix in brown sugar until combined. Add lemon extract and lemon zest, mixing until combined.
2. Add flour in three additions, beating after each addition until just combined. Dough should not be sticky. Roll into a ball, flatten slightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Pinch off bits of dough to form small balls. Evenly space on baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and immediately stamp cookies with sugared cookie stamps. Cut out with round cookie cutters for evenly-sized cookies.

I'm back with cookie stamping again. Except this time, I got the idea from my team leader on the baking team for Soldiers Angels to bake the cookies first then stamp them.

Huh. I'm not sure I would've thought of that on my own. Which is why it's good to learn from others and see how they do things, no matter how many (thousands of) cookies I've baked. You can always learn something new and I love learning from other bakers.

With this trick, you bake the cookies first without stamping then as soon as you take them out of the oven, you stamp them. I dipped my cookie stamp into granulated sugar to prevent sticking. Because of the high butter content in shortbread cookies, these are a bit fragile and you don't want the cookies to tear or fall apart from being "hot stamped" or to stick to the cookie stamp.

To take care of the uneven edges, use a round cookie cutter almost the size of the cookies and cut them out as soon as you stamp them. Yes, while the cookies are still hot; otherwise the shortbread edges might not cut as easily and again, could break the whole cookie if cut when cool. Cutting them out with the round cookie cutter is easier when the cookies are still hot and soft.

They do firm up as they cool. Depending how long you bake them, they can be crisp if you bake them a trifle longer or more chewy if you underbake them. Shortbread is the rare cookie I prefer not to underbake as I do like my shortbread more firm and crisp. 

These make a good tea cookie, crisp, delicate, nice lemon flavor. If you want them to be dainty, make smaller dough balls to bake smaller cookies and use a small round cookie cutter to even out the edges. Because you don't stamp the cookies until after they're baked, the impressions definitely keep.