This recipe was originally sent to me by my mother. She clipped it out of a magazine and told me that she thought I would love it—and she was right. The article said that they were “edible valentines”, and though I did make them for N. last year for Valentine’s Day, I quickly became such a fan of the recipe that I began making the cookies for all occasions.
These are essentially lemon shortbread cookies. They are easy to make and oh so delicious. Enjoy! 
You want to start out with the following ingredients: salt, lemons, flour, powdered sugar, and butter. Part of what I love about this recipe is that you don’t need eggs. I don’t eat a lot of eggs, so I don’t always have them on hand, and always have to buy them specifically for whatever I am baking. These cookies don’t need lemons, vanilla, baking soda, any of the things that you would normally think you needed to make cookies. This makes them awesome in my opinion.
You will notice that you need some odd looking extraneous instruments to efficiently complete this process. Well, you don’t necessarily need them, but it will make things so much easier for you. Firstly, you will need this:
This is a handy little contraption (That I bought at Walmart! And in that cute green color too!) that juices lemons. You stick the pointy end in the soft side of a lemon, and all kinds of juice comes out. It makes about three times as much juice and squeezing by hand, and you will get a lot less sticky lemon juice all over your hands. It is inexpensive and dishwasher safe, so I strongly recommend that you invest in one if you ever, at any time, have cooked with lemons
You will also benefit from having this:
This is a lemon zester. The little holes at the top let you scrape the zest (rind) off of the lemon, and the pointy-type thing in the middle lets you peel the lemon. I have never tried peeling a lemon with this tool, but it works wonders for zest. It gets a lot more zest with a lot less effort than you would get with one of those miniature cheese graters (which you sometimes see people use). Again, I strongly suggest that you put one of these in your kitchen immediately.
Slightly unfortunately, you should really have one of these as well:
This is a strong, sturdy, stainless steel beast who can conquer any and all baking needs. Although your average hand mixer is useful for many things, it probably just won’t be up to mixing a dough this stiff and heavy. If you have one of these heavier mixers (which, if you have the money, you should definitely get) use your paddle attachment, as shown here.
So how about we actually make the cookies?
Throw two sticks of softened butter into the bowl. If the butter isn’t soft enough, you can put it in the microwave for a few seconds (literally no more than 3-5) to get it ready. But keep in mind that soft does not at all mean melted. Once you have that in there, add some zest! I zest two lemons because I like that extra lemony flavor. 
Speaking of lemony flavor, I always go totally rogue on this recipe and add the juice of one lemon (one of the lemons I zested) to the butter as well. Because I want these cookies to taste like lemon. As you can see I am using my handy, pointy lemon juicer thing. Don’t be afraid to be ruthless. Show that lemon what’s up. Also, don’t just throw away the leftover lemon husk! Put it down your garbage disposal and it will make your sink smell like lemons! Which is much better than the usual garbage disposal smell.
When you have added the desired amount of lemon flavor to your cookies, cream the butter and lemon zest. By the time it is done you should not be able to see anything even remotely resembling a stick of butter.
When the butter is done creaming, add the powdered sugar. The wonderful thing about a standing mixer is that you can just turn it on and let it mix while you leisurely add the ingredients. It is like cooking in a dream.
As you can see, the dough is starting to get really fluffy. Time to dense it up. Grab your flour and pour it in. You may want to take a minute to scrape the sides with a spatula spoon so that everything gets incorporated. Don’t just dump all the flour it at once either. Start your mixer mixing, then gradually poor it in a little at a time so that the dough has a little breathing room.
Once you have added all the flour, your cookie dough should look like this. It will be sticky and dense and stiff. And delicious. So if you like tasting as you go, now is definitely the time. Of course, there are no eggs in this recipe, so you can eat as much of the raw dough as you like, without any repercussions! Wheee!
Before you go to roll out your dough and cut it into amusing shapes, form it into a ball. You will inevitably get some dough under your fingernails during this process. Feel free to lick it off. Then, if you are making these for other people, wash your hands. If you are just making them for yourself, you can use your own discretion about that. No judgment. 
Prepare your rolling space. As I have mentioned before, I like to use a large glass cutting board. Spread some flour around. Don’t use too much, because some of it will work its way into the dough, and you don’t want dry, crumbly cookies. Place your dough ball on the floured board, and press it down a little bit.
Roll out your dough. You want it to be about ¼ of an inch thick. These are pretty thick cookies, and that is how it should be. You won’t be able to make a huge batch of cookies, but every cookie will be totally worth it.
P.S. I love, love, love this rolling pin. The thick kind, without handles. It lets you really work your dough, and gives you way more control over what you are doing. I would recommend it to anyone.
Cut out your cookies and place them on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Two things: 1. You absolutely must cut out these cookies. They can’t be dropped. I tried it, and it did not work. So just resign yourself to the fact that your cookie cutters will be getting some use. This time I just used my regular old round cookie cutters, but I have also made hearts and stars. All these things have been successful. 2. If you don’t know already, learn the difference between parchment paper and wax paper. Parchment paper is dry and will not catch fire when baked in an oven. Wax paper is, well, waxy, and will definitely smoke, smoulder, and eventually burn in the oven. So definitely use the parchment paper.
Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes in a 425 degree oven. Pay attention to the cooking time, because you won’t be able to tell that the cookies are done. They should not be brown on the bottom or on the edges. In fact, they will look remarkably uncooked when they are finished. But they will be done. And you will be delighted with how they taste.
You can make frosting for these cookies if you want, although they are really great on their own. I used powdered sugar, whipping cream, lemon juice, and food coloring to make some icing for my cookies. But this part is totally up to you. Get creative!
These cookies are very simple to make, despite the fact that you need to roll them and cut them out. And whatever lucky person you decide to bestow these cookies upon will love you forever.
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