Lemon is not usually considered a holiday flavor, but I love it. So I make these for my cookie boxes. I have been making these for about a decade, when I took over the Christmas baking. The lemon curd is very tart, so you want to keep the cookies small. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can cut a small corner off a ziploc bag to use instead.
lemon curd sandwich cookies
ingredients
for cookies:
- 2 c. unbleached flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 & 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 c. granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 c. powdered sugar
for lemon curd:
- 3/4 c. fresh lemon juice(about 5 medium lemons)
- 1 tbl. finely grated fresh lemon zest
- 3/4 c. sugar
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into bits
- 2 tbl. cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4 large egg yolks
Begin by making the cookie dough. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Set aside. Combine butter and granulated sugar together in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg, then vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Turn machine to low, then slowly add flour mixture. Split dough in half, form each half into a ball, and flatten to a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.
While dough is chilling, make the lemon curd. Combine juice, zest, sugar, butter, cornstarch and salt in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer. Simmer 1 minute, whisking constantly. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks, then add 1/4 cup of the lemon juice to the eggs and whisk together. Add egg mixture back to the saucepan. Turn heat to low, and whisk constantly until the mixture holds the marks of the whisk, about 2 minutes. Pour mixture into a bowl, cover top of mixture(not the bowl) with plastic wrap, and chill until cool.
Place racks in top and bottom thirds of oven, and preheat oven to 375°. Roll out the dough to a 1/4″ thick on a well floured surface. Cut out cookies with a small circle cookie cutter. Cook two sheets at a time, switching positions halfway through, until cookie edges start to turn golden brown, 8-10 minutes total. Let cookies cool one minute, then dredge in the powdered sugar. Cool on a wire rack. Pipe a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon curd onto cookie, then cover with another cookie to make a sandwich.
2 batches made. 151 made, 1,432 to go.