Glazed Lemon Cookies

Apparently these are delicious. I took them to a wedding shower, without really tasting them BTW, and (not to brag just illustrating their deliciousness) they were the hit of the night. I should have doubled the recipe because they were seriously gone in 10 minutes. Everyone wanted the recipe. So I'm sharing with you. (These look a lot harder than they are, these are just extremely detailed instructions.

MAKES ABOUT 30Lemon Cookies

3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. Lemon Zest (about 2 Lemons)
2 Tbsp. Lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
12 Tbsp. ( 1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2” cubes
1 lg. egg yolk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Lemon Glaze
1 Tbsp. softened cream cheese
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
yellow food coloring (optional)
lemon zest (optional)

Directions Cookies:
1. For the cookies: Adjust oven racks so cookies can cook in the middle; heat oven to 375 degrees F. (Note: I'd wait until you take dough out of the freezer.)

Method 1 : Food Processor
2. In the bowl of food processor, process granulated sugar and zest until it looks damp and zest is thoroughly incorporated, about 30 seconds.
Scatter butter chunks over. Pulse until mixture resembles fine cornmeal, about 15 one-second pulses.In a measuring cup or small bowl, beat lemon juice, yolk, and vanilla until combined.With machine running, add juice/yolk mixture in slow, steady stream (process should take about 10 seconds); continue processing until dough begins to form ball, 10 to 15 seconds longer. Continue to step 3.

Method 2: Stand or Hand Mixer
2. Use softened butter.Rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingers until wet and sandy. Cream softened butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and lemon juice. Beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients in several additions, mixing well after each addition. The dough will be crumbly.Continue to step 3.

3. Turn dough and any dry bits out onto counter (or board); working quickly, gently knead the dough together to ensure no dry bits remain and dough is homogeneous. (Note: My dough was really wet, I think it's because I didn't really measure my lemon juice and used the juice of two lemons. Anyways if it is wet roll it around in extra flour until it's not so sticky.) Roll dough into a large disk.Wrap disk in plastic wrap. Chill dough until firm and cold, about 45 minutes in freezer or 2 hours in refrigerator. (Note: don't skimp on this part, if the dough isn't cold enough it'll be really hard to work with.)

4. Spray baking sheets with nonstick spray. Remove dough from wrapping and shape into 1" balls. Place on baking sheet, spacing them about 1" apart. Place dough back in freezer between bakings.

5. Bake until edges are barely brown, about 10-12 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheet about 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire rack, or wax paper and cool to room temperature before glazing.

Glaze
1. Whisk cream cheese and lemon juice until no lumps remain. Add powdered sugar and whisk until smooth. (Note: I added yellow food coloring to my glaze so it would look more lemony and less eggy.)

2. When cookies have cooled, working one at a time, hold them with your fingertips on the side and dip top of cookie into glaze. Shake of excess glaze as your lifting cookie out. Turn cookie upright and give it a little shake to smooth out glaze. (Note: because I was taking them to a shower I wanted people to know they were lemon, so I added zest on top. Make sure you put the zest on right after you glaze them because the glaze dries fast.) Let glazed cookies dry at room temperature, about 1 hour.