Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies

Oh the Christmas cookie. Maybe 10 years ago I found myself between work assignments and I was home for a long stay through December and early January. My mom and I used this time to pour over every cookbook we could get our hands on, and then try every cookie recipe we saw. I think that in a 5 week time period we made over 20 kinds of cookies alone - this doesn't even count the cake/pie/tart extravaganza that was our annual neighborhood dessert party at our house. Hundreds of dozens of cookies were made.

I'll never do that again. Fun, yes. Cookie overload, for sure.

Each year I feel like I make fewer and fewer kinds of cookies. I like to think of it as just weeding out the so so cookies and letting the show stoppers really strut their stuff. In the winter of 2008 a new cookie was added to the mix - Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies. Courtesy of the now extinct Gourmet magazine, these cookies have won me such comments as "where did you buy these?" or "you couldn't possibly have made these." They are that good.

Now, these do take a little time. You need to make the cookies, then the filling and then give some time for everything to cool so you can assemble the final product. I usually divide this up over two days. Also, when you finish with the batter you will find that it doesn't make much dough - but, you should use a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon to form the balls to roll in the sanding sugar. The cookie will spread a little, and you want the final product to be small enough to pop into your mouth. I find this size scoop really works best.

Usually I stop into Michael's or AC Moore for the sanding sugars - take your pick of colors or even mix them together. These are going to be as beautiful as the ornaments on your tree :-)

Ingredients:
Cookies
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup corn or potato starch
1/4 tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbs. lemon zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Sanding Sugars in multiple colors

Filling
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbs. grated lemon zest
1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 tbs. light corn syrup
1/2 stick of butter, softened
1 heavy duty resealable bag (for piping the frosting)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle of the oven.

Whisk together the flour, corn/potato starch and salt.

Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric or stand mixer until the butter is pale and fluffy. Mix in the lemon zest and vanilla. At a low speed, beat in the flour mixture in two parts. Mix until everything has come together.

Put the sanding sugars into different bowls. Scoop out 1/2 tsp spoonfuls of batter, rolling them into balls and dropping them into the sanding sugar to coat. Turn the balls to coat in the sugar. Transfer the balls to a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining batter.

TIP: I usually try and do an even number of balls in each color so they will match up when they come out of the oven - but feel free to have fun with this.

Bake one sheet of cookies at a time until they are pale in color and possibly slightly cracked on top - about 12 to 15 minutes. Do not overcook or they will crumble. Cook remaining cookies, one sheet at a time. Cool completely and then store until you are ready to fill them.

Filling
Beat together the filling ingredients in an electric or stand mixer until combined well. Transfer to a resealable bag and snip off a corner of the bag (start small, you can always make this bigger).

Turn over 1/2 of the cookies and put about 1/2 tsp or less of the filling on the flat side of each. Sandwich with the remaining cookies pressing gently. Cool the cookies in a tin. They will keep at room temperature for about 4 days. I like to keep these cold so the filling doesn't slide the cookies away from their other half.

Enjoy!