I recently conquered my fear of double boilers, and have made lemon curd twice now. It's delicious, and I want to bathe in the stuff. I was making meringues (which were a disaster), and had used the egg yolks that were left over to make some lemon curd. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but I was more than happy to eat it with a spoon out of the jar, should the opportunity to use it NOT present itself.
However, I was on a walk with my neighbor (who is a baker by trade - I'm literally the luckiest girl around), and she mentioned that she had made cookies like linzers, with a hole in the middle - with apricot jam, and in the shape of eggs.
That was it!!! I knew it!!! I now had to make egg shaped linzer-like cookies, but use the lemon curd in between them for the "yolk" effect. They turned out delicious, and almost too cute to eat. The tanginess of the lemon curd with the sweetness of the cookie was perfection.
What you'll need:
- (non-corrodible) pot and slightly wider-than-the-rim metal mixing bowl
- whisk
- baking sheets
- baking paper
- egg shaped cookie cutter
- circle cookie cutter that is smaller than the egg
- sifter (or find the really cool Weiner Zucker powdered sugar sifter that another friend got me at Christmastime
- rolling pin
Lemon Curd
(You'll need to make this a day ahead. Alternatively you could use store-bought.)
Ingredients:
- 6 egg yolks plus one whole egg
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 4 1/2 fluid ounces (133 ml) of lemon juice
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 tbs lemon zest
- 1/2 cup (115 gr) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
Directions:
1. Fill pot with about 1 inch of water. Bring to a simmer, then bring back down to a low heat.
2. In a metal mixing bowl, combine (well) eggs and sugar. Add lemon juice and salt.
3. Place the mixing bowl on the pot - ensuring that the water does not actually touch the bottom of the bowl. Continuously whisk ingredients together for 20-22 minutes, until mixture is thickened, and coats the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT ALLOW MIXTURE TO BOIL.
4. Once your mixture is thickened, remove from heat, and set on heat-safe surface. Add the lemon zest, and whisk it in - releasing the oils from it.
5. Add squares of butter one-at-a-time, whisking them in until fully dissolved.
6. Strain mixture into a new bowl (getting rid of any zest, bits of cooked egg or residue).
7. Allow to cool (it will continue to thicken), then transfer into container. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Lemon curd keeps in the refrigerator for one week, and for 2 months in the freezer.
Sugar Cookie
(This is my go-to sugar cookie recipe. I halved my original recipe, and used some for these, some just to decorate, some for Earth Day...)
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup (170 gr) butter at room temp.
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs at room temp.
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- powdered sugar
- lemon curd
Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl of a standing mixer (or by hand) cream together butter and sugar.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix in flour (gradually), baking powder and salt.
4. Mix together until forms one mass. You don't want to over-work it.
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, and chill for at least one hour, but you can also do it overnight. If chilling overnight, remove dough 1-2 hours before use.
6. On a flat, floured surface, roll dough into 1/4 inch thickness.
7. Preheat oven to 400 F / 204 C (or 375 F / 190 C for convection oven). Line your baking sheets.
8. Using the cookie cutter, cut out egg shapes, making sure you have an even number of them.
8. Using the circle cookie cutter, cut out a hole for the "yolk" on half of them.
9. Place them on your baking sheet.
10. Bake for approx. 5 minutes, but this may vary a little, depending on how thick they are, and your oven setting. Bake them until they are just barely getting golden brown.
11. Take out of oven, and allow to cool.
12. When the cookies with the hole are just barely warm, dust them generously with powdered sugar. (This way it'll stick, but not become "globby".) Doing this step now will ensure you don't cover up that gorgeous yellow of the lemon curd.
13. Spread lemon curd on the "whole" cookies, flat side (the side that was directly on the baking sheet) up. Make sure you have a little extra curd where the hole will be, so it'll fill it in nicely.
14. Carefully place the powdered sugar cookie on the cookie with the curd, creating a sandwich.
15. Store in an airtight container in the fridge (because of the curd) for up to two days. They're really best enjoyed right away, though. :)
And that's it! These cookies are so so cute!
I hope you enjoyed the recipe! If you try it, please post pictures, or let me know how they turned out!
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