Lemon Sandwich cookies

Now I usually do not make so many lemon desserts in a row. But like I said in a previous post - lemons were an awesome price at QFC and I had plenty. Since I don't want anything to go to waste, I thought of one last lemon treat to create. These were terrific. The cookie part is actually a lemon shortbread cookie with kind of a melt away texture. I used my spritz cookie gun to make the star like shape. The filling in between the cookies is a lemon buttercream. I piped the filling onto the cookies with a pastry bag and a star shaped tip.

These are the cookies right after I piped them onto the cookie sheet. They are ready to pop into the oven! Whenever I use my spritz cookie gun, I don't use parchment over my cookie sheets because the parchment slides around or lifts when I try to pipe the cookies on it. I just make sure I use my NON stick cookie sheets.

These cookies are just the right size to pop into your mouth! Delicious! They would probably be wonderful with other flavor combinations also. Almond cookie with raspberry filling. Vanilla cookie with chocolate filling. Coconut cookie with caramel filling. Wow, I could think of a lot of tempting possibilities!

Lemon shortbread cookies

2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons lemon extract (I always use 1 tsp lemon extract & 1 tsp vanilla)
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream butter until light & fluffy. Gradually add both sugars and beat until fluffy, stopping occasionally to scrape the bowl. Beat in lemon zest, yolks, extract & salt. Add flour & beat until just blended.

At this point, you can either stuff the dough into your spritz cookie gun and shoot them on out OR you can simply roll the dough into a small ball and flatten with a glass that has been dipped into either powdered sugar or granulated sugar.

Bake until the cookie are barely brown along the edge. Transfer cookiesw to a rack to cool.

For the lemon butter cream, I used 2 sticks of butter, several squirts of lemon juice and kept adding powdered sugar until I got the consistency that I wanted.

In the past, I have made these by rolling the dough into a ball and then flattening them and then I simply spread lemon butter cream over the tops of the cooled cookies.