Frosted Soft Lemon Cookies

Oh my.  I'm starting a citrus trend, and I blame the warm/hot weather.  Orange Brownies.  Key Lime Pie.  And now these, Frosted Soft Lemon Cookies.  I'm just here to make sure y'all are getting your daily dose of Vitamin C.  Oh, and sugar.  Always sugar.

After this week I may take a little break from all this fruit, but besides these cookies I have one more fruit dessert to share with you.  A girl can only live on fruit for so long until she breaks down and goes for the chocolate.  And by "girl" I mean "me", and I need chocolate!  I'm daydreaming of Oreos.

Anyway, I had these lemons hanging around, and when I received a last minute request for a dessert I knew exactly where to go.  However there are so many delicious lemony desserts, where to begin?  I shall turn to the mighty Pinterest for inspiration!

And here's what I came up with:

Frosted Soft Lemon Cookies

adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

- 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp. baking powder

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 3/4 c. granulated sugar

- 2 Tbsp. lemon zest (zest of 2 sm. lemons)

- 1 c. unsalted butter, softened

- 1 egg

- 1tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt-set aside.  In another bowl, add sugar and lemon zest.  Using your fingers, rub the zest into the sugar.  The idea is to infuse the sugar with the lemon flavor.  Lemon-sugar.  Good stuff.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy- a few minutes.  Scrape down sides of the bowl, add egg and vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed for several minutes.  Turn mixer on low, and slowly add flour mixture.  Stir until batter is just combined.  Batter will be thick.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough (about golf ball size) onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool cookies on sheet for a couple minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Lemon Frosting

* you could probably halve this recipe but I'd rather have enough goodness to spread around, and save the extra for something else like frosting cupcakes or filling whoopie pies-YUM!  :)

- 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened

- 1/2 c. vegetable shortening

- 5-6 c. powdered sugar (depending on thick/sweet you want)

- pinch of salt

- 4 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (use your 2 lemons that you zested)

- 1-2 drops yellow food coloring (optional)

- yellow sanding sugar (optional)

In a bowl of stand mixer, beat together butter and shortening.  With mixer on low, add powdered sugar and pinch of salt.  Beat until powdered sugar is incorporated and mixture is thick.  On low, slowly add your lemon juice and food coloring.  Turn mixer on high and beat until whipped and fluffy!

Scoop a heaping mound of frosting onto each cooled cookie and and spread around.  Sprinkle with sanding sugar if desired.  Enjoy!