Lemon Coconut Shortbread Cookies

I found this recipe in a cookbook my sister-in-law, Cathy, sent us for Christmas. It is called Calico Cooking from the Calico Corners fabric stores. I am not sure why a fabric store makes a cookbook but…

When I Googled the recipe, I found it all over the web including at epicurius.com.

I am too lazy to roll out logs, refrigerate and cut them. I took the unrefrigerated dough, scooped it onto the baking sheets with a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop. I then buttered the bottom of a glass, dipped it in sugar and gently flattened each dough ball to the prescribed ¼ inch thickness, redipping in sugar before flattening each subsequent ball. I also skipped the powdered sugar because it is a mess.

These cookies are firm but not dry. I wonder if some coconut flavoring, in addition to the vanilla and lemon flavoring, would have been good.

Yield:

4 dozen small cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

½ cup sugar

1 ½ tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon lemon extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted and cooled

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

 

In a bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Beat zest, vanilla, and lemon extract.

Add flour, baking powder and salt. Beat until it forms a dough.

Stir in coconut.

Chill dough for 1 hour, or until it is firm enough to handle.

Divide the dough in half. On a sheet of wax paper, form each half into an 8-inch log. Chill the logs, wrapped in the wax paper, for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 300°F.

Cut the logs into ¼-inch-thick slices with a sharp knife.

Arrange the slices 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they are pale golden.

Transfer them to racks and sprinkle them generously with some of the confectioners’ sugar.

Let the cookies cool then dust them lightly with the remaining confectioners’ sugar.