Lemon-Cream Sandwich Cookies
Adapted from Citizen Cake via
Bon Appetit, January 2009

Filling:
1 ½ tablespoons finely grated lemon peel
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ to 1 cup (packed) powdered sugar (taste after adding ½ cup to see if it’s sweet enough for you)

Cookies:
½ cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 tbsp finely grated lemon peel
3 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

Filling:

Using the back of a spoon, mash lemon peel and salt to past in medium bowl. Add butter.

Using electric mixer, beat until fluffy. Add sugar in 4 batches, beating after each addition until blended.

Cookies:

Boil lemon juice and lemon peel in small saucepan until mixture is reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 4 minutes. Pour into small bowl and cool. Sift flour, salt and baking soda into medium bowl.

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add sugar; beat until blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then beat in yolks. Beat in lemon juice mixture. Add dry ingredients and stir to blend well. Cover dough and chill until firm, at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 375oF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1/3 of dough on lightly floured surface to scant 3/8 inch thickness. Using 2-inch round cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until golden at edges, about 12 minutes. Let cookies cool 5 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Before adding the filling to the cookies, remove it from the refrigerator and let it warm up a tiny bit so it’s “squeezable”. Place a small mound of filling on the flat side of 1 cookie. Top with another cookie and pat from the center, squeezing the sides gently (the cookies are tough enough to handle light pressure) to spread the filling out to the sides. Repeat with more cookies. If you want more filling, by all means add more, but I prefer my cookies to have less than more filling – about Oreo amount is more than enough for me.

Do ahead: can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight in refrigerator or freeze for longer storage (though, I doubt that these will not be consumed within mere days).

Radish’s Notes:
1. The recipe told me I would get about 24 cookies. Instead, I got about 40.

2. The actual recipe suggested 2 cups of powdered sugar – which I thought sounded too much, and after about ½ to ¾ cups, I thought the filling was plenty sweet. Personally, I think the 2 cups is a total overkill.

3. After taking the dough out of the fridge, give it a little time to warm up, however, this dough is very temperamental. Too cold – and it rips and comes apart; too warm – and it’s so pliable you can’t get your circles to stay as circles. Thus, periodically just throw the dough in the freezer for a few minutes. You can even do that while you are rolling out/cutting a batch.