Sugar cookies…how boring, right? But wait! There’s a surprise!

I don’t eat sugar cookies because I think they’re bland and I’d rather use the calories on something good. These are different. They have lemon! 

Let’s get to it.

Step 1: Gather ingredients: Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, lemon juice, lemon zest. 

I forgot to include sanding sugar. That’s coming later.

Step 2: Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. 

Step 3: Mix up both sugars and lemon zest. 

This smelled so good, I just wanted to eat it. Don’t worry, I’m not disgusting. I held back.

Step 4: Add butter, beat until light and fluffy. 

I don’t know if that’s light and fluffy, but it works.

Step 5: Add eggs, one at a time. 

Step 6: Add lemon juice. 

Yeah, there’s some zest in there. Judge me.

Step 7: Gradually mix in flour mixture. 

She said to mix until incorporated and I was like, yeah okay.

Step 8: Using a 2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined sheets. 

I was like…yeah…okay? This seems too large. I decided to only bake 3 to see what happened.

This happened. They were HUGE!

I decided to switch to only using half of the scoop. I did not think I’d get to 20 cookies using that much dough, and I also did not want to have to rotate through that many batches. I’d be here all night!

Step 9: Sprinkle with sanding sugar. 

Yes, this happens before you bake. I just had to show you the huge ones first.

Step 10: Lightly brush with a wet pastry brush and add more sugar. 

There’s that dumb silicone brush again. I really need a good one. *cough* My birthday is the 25th of this month, people.

These ones came out better. I didn’t wait until they were golden, but the texture is awesome.

Link to original recipe

Yields: 20
I got: 23 (varying sizes)

Start time: 8:55
End time: 10:30 (1 hour, 35 mins)
Martha’s estimated time: 25 mins (WHAT?!)

What did I learn?

• Sugar cookies don’t always deserve a bad rap. Unless they’re Lofthouse cookies.

What do I need to learn?

• Is my 2-inch ice cream scoop unusually large? It is 2 inches wide. I measured!
• Why have I never heard of lemon in a sugar cookie? I’m looking at you, Mom.

The moral of this story is…

I LOVE SUGAR!

Oh, no. I AM disgusting.

Forget that image and remember this one instead.

If you ate one of these, please comment. If you didn’t, please make them.

If you missed my last post, Chocolate-and-Cream Sandwich Cookies, read it here.