Lemon Easter Cookies

Today's post is a bit of holiday fun for the kiddies, and given world events over the past two weeks and particularly here in S.A. I think us adults could do with a bit of fun too! In all seriousness though, this is an exceptionally tasty cookie, with or without all the icing and trimmings, and you should definitely give this recipe a try these Easter holidays! 

My children had such fun cutting out and decorating these Easter cookies (as did I!). We used an oval cutter to make Easter egg shapes as well as a bunny cutter, but you could use circles or whatever shapes you have on hand. This dough holds its shape well during baking, just be sure not to skip the step where you chill it in the fridge.

When it comes to decorating the cookies the options are really quite endless. You can keep things super simple by serving the cookies just as they are or with a dusting of icing sugar, or go all out with icing, sprinkles and speckled eggs. You can see from my photos which option my little ones preferred! Here are a few ideas:

• Dust the cookies with icing sugar just before serving.
• Pipe royal icing around the edges and fill the middle with glacé icing.
• Spoon a "puddle" of glacé icing into the middle of the cookie and top with speckled eggs.
• Add 100's and 1000's, chocolate vermicelli or rainbow funfetti to the cookies while the icing is wet so that the sprinkles stick.
• Flavour the glacé icing with lemon juice before drizzling over the cookies. 
• Sandwich the cookies together with buttercream icing. There is a great recipe HERE. 

Cook's notes - keep an eye on the cookies when they are in the oven and adjust the baking time if necessary (i.e. small cookies will bake more quickly than very large ones). If you don't have a piping bag for the royal icing simply use a small plastic sandwich bag with the corner snipped off.

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LEMON EASTER COOKIES

Makes 28 (depending on cutter size)

100g butter
100g castor sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2½ tsp finely grated lemon zest
200g cake flour
½ tsp baking powder
cookie cutters 

To make royal icing:
1 large egg white, room temperature
1 cup icing sugar 
gel food colouring

To make glacé icing:
1 cup icing sugar
water
gel food colouring

To decorate:
assorted sprinkles, speckled eggs, chocolate chips, etc. 

Step 1.) Cream the butter and castor sugar together until combined and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix in.

Step 2.) Add the flour and baking powder and mix. Use your hands to bring everything together into a dough. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Step 3.) Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Roll the dough out to a thickness of 3-4mm on a lightly floured surface. Cut out your shapes and arrange them on the tray. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden around the edges. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Step 4.) To make royal icing: whisk the egg white for a few seconds until foamy. Sift in half of the icing sugar and use an electric beater to mix until combined. Sift in the remaining icing sugar. Beat the mixture for 3-4 minutes until thick and glossy. Add a drop of two of gel food colouring, mix and spoon into a piping bag.

Step 5.) To make glacé icing: sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add a small amount of water and mix. Continue to add a little bit of water at a time until you have a thick icing. It should be runny enough to spread but thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add a drop or two of gel food colouring and mix well.

Step 6.) Once the biscuits are completely cool decorate with the icings and sprinkles. Allow to dry before serving.