CHRISTMAS COOKIES WITH A TWIST
Take advantage of peak citrus harvest with these lemony varieties
It’s no secret that I love to bake — butter, sugar and f lour are at the top of my grocery list all year long — but the holiday season is definitely my favorite time of year to do it. Assembling a beautiful selection of tiny, sweet bites for my family and friends to enjoy is a real pleasure, and a lovingly prepared plate of cookies may be just the thing to nibble on while we remain locked down, watching Christmas movies on Netf lix when big parties and celebrations are out of the question.
When it comes to classic holiday f lavors, my standard list of cookies features many of the usual suspects: crisp, peppery gingerbread men; rich, crackly chocolate drops; airy pepper
mint meringues; and boozy eggnog cookies decorated with red and green sprinkles. But this year, I’m shaking things up a little and giving some of my favorite cookies a fresh, zesty twist of lemon.
Lemon might not be the first f lavor you think of for your holiday cookies and desserts, but maybe it should be — winter weather ushers in the prime season for citrus fruits, and markets are bursting with gorgeous specimens, including blood oranges, clementines, grapefruits, tangerines and, of course, lemons. Meyer lemons, originally a native of China, are a cross between mandarin oranges and citron or classic lemons. They are mildly acidic and very juicy, with a heady, almost floral aroma and f lavor. They reach their peak in December, making them a welcome addition to your winter baking.
One way to maximize the lemon f lavor in your cookie recipes is to turn plain granulated sugar into citrus sugar. Using a microplane zester, grate the lemon directly over a small bowl containing the recipe’s granulated sugar (be sure to just remove the colorful part of the skin and not the bitter white pith underneath.) To extract every drop of f lavor possible, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips. When massaged together, the sharpness of the sugar crystals helps release all the essential oils in the zest, making the sugar slightly damp and sandy and deeply fragrant.
Toasted Coconut-Lemon Thumbprints
Thumbprint cookies are an annual favorite in my Christmas baking repertoire. Traditionally, I roll scoops of vanilla shortbread dough in finely chopped pecans, and once the cookies are baked but still a little soft, I make a well in the center of each one with my thumb or the back of a teaspoon to fill with raspberry jam. This year, I am trading the nuts for sweetened, shredded coconut and filling the cookies with lemon curd instead of jam. The sweet, toasted nest of coconut combined with the bright f lavor of lemon, woven into the cookie dough and the filling, make a unique but welcome combination for any cookie platter.
Lemony Christmas Shortbread Cookies
For decorative Christmas cut-out cookies, I prefer the sturdy texture and buttery f lavor of shortbread over the usual sugar cookie dough. Shortbread tends to spread less and hold its shape better when baked, and frosted with a tangy lemon glaze and a f lurry of decorative sprinkles, they taste as good the day they are made as they do a week later, when stored in a tightly covered container. If you want to plan well in advance, once cut out and baked, the cookies freeze
beautifully unfrosted for up to 2 weeks. When you are ready to serve them or give the cookies as gifts, just thaw, frost and decorate.
Lemon-Cranberry Snowballs
Whether you call them Snowballs, Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Teacakes, these tender
little cookies filled with chopped pecans, walnuts or toasted pine nuts and dredged in confectioners’ sugar are a Christmas classic, and completely addictive. Most of the bakers I know make some variation of these cookies every year. This year, I f lavored my snowballs with walnuts, grated lemon zest and dried
cranberries for an extra festive boost. They are so good, I’ll need at least one a day this holiday season. Call them my daily Christmas vitamins, if you must.