The Cookie Jar – Lemon Butter Cookies

What is summer without some yummy cookies for your trips to the beach, a weekend picnic, a Sunday lunch or a treat with a cup of tea or a tall glass of iced tea any afternoon of the week?This is one of those cookies that EVERYONE loves!  I’ve never served it to anyone who didn’t ask for more and often have asked for the recipe.  They could hardly be any easier to make or any yummier to eat.  So what will be your excuse for making these tasty treats this weekend?  OR maybe the better question is, what will be your excuse for NOT making them ?  🙂

They are bound to add love, joy and abundance to your life this summer!

Though I have modified it by adding lemon rind, the original recipe for these cookies came from the same cookbook that our Perfect Chocolate Cake came from as well.  If you like chocolate cake and you haven’t already tried that recipe, you simply must try it and this one too!

Lemon Butter Cookies

1 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 egg yolks
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon lemon extract  (you can also use lemon extract you buy from the market)
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and sugar together.  Grate lemon rind.  Add yolks, lemon rind and lemon extract and mix well.

Stir dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture.  Combine and beat just until dough comes together.  Make balls of dough the size of walnuts and roll in sugar.

Place on cookie sheet and flatten with a fork as you would with a peanut butter cookie.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes or just until the edges of the cookies are barely beginning to brown.

Cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet  then remove to a rack until completely cooled….if you can wait that long.  These are so yummy,  so buttery, and deliciously lemony….enjoy!