Citrus Sugar Cookies
from a cozy mystery: Banana Cream Pie Murder by Joanne FlukeYield: approximately 10 dozen crunchy, buttery, citrus-infused sugar cookies that children and adults will love.
Ingredients
- 2 cups salted butter melted (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)
- 2 cups powdered sugar (don't sift unless it's got big lumps and then you shouldn't use it anyway)
- 1 cup white (granulated) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tsp orange extract
- zest of one lemon
- zest of one orange
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cream of tartar (critical!)
- 1 tsp salt
- 4¼ cups all-purpose flour (don't sift-pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
- ½ cup white sugar in a small, shallow bowl (for later you'll be using the sugar to coat dough balls after the dough has chilled)
Instructions
- If you haven't already done so, melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. 60 seconds on HIGH should be enough.You can also melt the butter in a saucepan on the stovetop at LOW heat. If you do this, stir the butter with a spoon to make sure the butter doesn't brown.Pour the butter into a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer.
- Add the powdered sugar and the white (granulated) sugar and mix it in thoroughly.Let the mixture cool to room temperature before proceeding further.
- Zest the lemon and the orange
- When the butter and sugar mixture is cool, turn the mixer on LOW. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.
- With the mixer running on LOW speed, mix in the lemon and orange extracts.
- Mix in the lemon zest and the orange zest.
- Add the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Mix until thoroughly everything is combined.
- Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing well after each addition. (You can mix the quarter-cup at the end with the fourth full cup of flour.) Give your dough a final stir by hand and cover the bowl.
- Chill the covered dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. (Overnight is fine, too.)
- When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. with the rack in the middle position.
- Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper. Or you can use a silicone baking mat as I did.
- Prepare a shallow bowl with the half-cup of white sugar.
- Take your chilled Citrus Sugar Cookie dough out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. Remove the cover.
- Use your impeccably clean hands to roll the dough into walnut-sized balls. Roll only a half-dozen dough balls or so to start. Then cover the bowl again so that it will remain chilled.
- One at a time, dip the dough balls into the bowl of sugar and roll them around until they're coated.
- Place the sugar-coated dough balls on the cookie sheets you've prepared, 12 dough balls to a standard-sized sheet. Flatten the dough balls with the back of a metal spatula.
- Bake the cookies at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes. (The cookies should have a tinge of gold around the edges when they're fully baked, but they should not be brown.)
- When the cookies have baked, take them out of the oven and set them on cold stovetop burners or on wire racks to cool. Leave them on the cookie sheets for 1 to 2 minutes.
- After the cookies have cooled slightly, remove them from the cookie sheets to a wire rack to finish cooling.