Lemon Cream Cookies for Jill

As I told you in my last post, my best friend Jill and her son Connor are staying with us for a few days. For years now, Jill has been obsessed with anything citrus, particularly lemons. She lives in Colorado so she never really gets to taste anything I make, but when she reads on my blog that I made something with lemon or even lemon and pistachio, I get a text message saying “you are killing me!”.

Jill loves the lemon cream shortbreads that Whole Foods sells under their Bakery line. It’s her little addiction, so of course, when we went to Whole Foods a couple of days ago, she had to get a box. I wanted to explain to her that those can be so easy to make and even wanted to challenge her to do a blind tasting between my lemon cream cookies and them.

Even C. got involved. I placed the store-bought cookies on one plate and mine on another. It only took two bites and they made up their minds. You can imagine the rest. Oh… these two really know how to make me happy!

The filling is swiss buttercream that is flavored with lemon zest, lemon oil and sandwiched between two lemon spritz cookies. The cookies are piped into rosettes and baked to a light golden brown. They are very buttery and crumbly and in my opinion, they get better the following day.

Lemon Spritz Cookies

110 grams butter, room temperature
90 grams sugar
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp lemon oil
Zest of 1 lemon
180 grams flour
2 grams salt

Cream the butter, sugar, lemon zest and lemon oil together until well combined. Add the yolks and mix until combined. Add the flour and salt and mix.

Place the soft dough into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe rosettes onto a sheetpan lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350F for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Let them cool completely and fill with the lemon buttercream.

Lemon Buttercream

75 grams egg whites
150 grams sugar
225 grams butter, room temperature
Zest of 2 lemons
1/2 tsp lemon oil
Juice of 1 lemon

Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Place the bowl over a double boiler. Whisk the egg whites and sugar until the sugar starts to melt and the egg whites appear very white and light, almost like a light marshmallow. It should be very hot to the touch.

Remove the bowl from the heat and place in electric mixer. Whip until meringue forms and the bowl feels cool.

Add the softened butter one tablespoon at a time. Add the juice, oil and zest. It might appear as the buttercream is separating. Continue whipping until it comes together.

Post Script- I am so sorry to be missing this month’s Daring Bakers challenge. I have been so busy… lame excuse, I know. I will be here next month though. I promise. Please check out what other DBers have been up to.