Slice and Bake Lemon and Poppy Seed Tea Cookies

These cookies are low maintenance. They don’t require rolling, or cookie cutters or even frosting. They use exactly one bowl, along with the beaters and the tray they’re baked on. Their shining quality, however, is the fact that the dough is made ahead of time, formed into a log, and then wrapped and refrigerated until the need to bake them arises. The dough can even be frozen for a couple of months and then de-thawed when the mood for lemon/poppy seed cookies arises. (And yes, it will arise.) The finished cookie is a bit like a shortbread cookie: buttery and crumbly and not overly sweet. The recipe calls for the dough to be formed into a 1 and 1/4 inch log. Though it seems small, the cookies puff up a bit in baking (though they do not spread out much at all). The finished cookies don’t end up too small at all.

These cookies make a great gift, either as the finished cookies themselves, or given as dough wrapped in parchment with instructions for the recipient to bake at home.

Slice and Bake Lemon Poppyseed Tea Cookies Source: Smitten Kitchen 

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of butter, room temperature 
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks, room temperature
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1/2 t. lemon extract
• zest of two lemons, grated
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds

Directions

Make the Dough and Form Into Logs 

1. Beat butter at medium speed until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat well to combine. Beat in egg yolks, zest, extracts, and poppy seeds.

2. Reduce speed to low and add in flour, mixing only to incorporate. Do not overbeat flour.

3. Turn dough out onto the counter and form into a ball. Divide in 1/2 and wrap each 1/2 in plastic wrap.

4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before forming into logs (do not wait much longer than this or dough will be too hard. Too early, and dough will be too soft.)

5. After 30 minutes, form dough into logs approximately 1 and 1/4 inch in diameter and wrap each log individually in plastic wrap. Return to refrigerator until ready to bake.*

Bake the Cookies 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper

3. Remove logs from refrigerator and plastic wrap, and slice into 1/3 inch cookies.

4. Place cookies on parchment about 1/2 inch apart

5. Bake cookies at 350 for 12-14 minutes, or until set but not brown

6. Cool completely before moving from pans

* Dough can be frozen for a month or more and refrigerated for a day. If baking from frozen, de-thaw in the refrigerator the night before.