Lemon Sugar Cookies

Mark your calendars - March 6 is National Dentist Day! In honor of this holiday, I wanted to recognize my sissy and her awesome office staff. I really enjoy making decorated sugar cookies so I went on Amazon and found a toothbrush and tooth shaped cookie cutter. This became my post call activity so please excuse the shoddy decorating job. Also, I know that I'm a little premature in whipping these up almost a week early, but being a student still, you kinda have to do things around student schedule. Mondays are the new Fridays when you're a med student. Heck, any night that you're not on call is the new Friday. Let's get started!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (softened)

2.5 cup flour

1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

For the icing:

1/4 cup meringue powder (can get this from Michael's craft stores)

1 lb powdered sugar/confectioner sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

food coloring

Method

1. Assemble all ingredients. I even splurged on Williams-Sonoma vanilla extract...it smelled delicious but I'm not really sure if it enhanced the taste of my cookies. I also feel compelled to do a quick plug about how awesome Kitchen Aid stand mixers are. It is the work horse in my kitchen!

2. Cream together the butter and granulated sugar. Add the eggs and beat well.

3. In another bowl, mix together the nutmeg, salt, baking powder. Sift or if you're too lazy, stir in the flour.





4. slowly add the dry mixture to the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Mix well and with the mixer still on, add in the heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

5. Pound out the dough and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.




6. After you feel like the dough is pliable, roll out the dough on a well floured surface to about 1/4" to 1/2" thick, depending on how thick you like your cookies.

7. Bake at 325 degrees for 14-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

During this time, start making the icing by mixing boiling water with granulated sugar until fully dissolved. Add the meringue powder and whip until slightly stiff peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff. The icing will harden on room air so if you want to save it, you must put it in a metal container (not plastic). To decorate the cookies, thin the icing with water until it is at a consistency that is neither too runny nor too hard and add food coloring until it is the shade you want. Put the icing in a parchment pastry bag and start piping!