The Lemon Butter Wafers can be served plain, or can be transformed into a sandwich cookie by the addition of raspberry jam. Either way, they make an attractive snack or dessert for holiday entertaining.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
… a hit with reporters, choir members alike
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This platter contains mostly plain Lemon Butter Cookies, along with two that are spread with raspberry jam and ready to become part of a sandwich cookie.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
There are only six ingredients in these cookies — sugar, flour, ground almonds, butter, lemon zest and eggs. Make that seven ingredients if you add jam to turn the Lemon Butter Wafers into sandwich cookies.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
“Now, where did Mary Therese go with those cookies?” the choir director said as she finished a music-related task and turned around to see that, yes, I was still there in our rehearsal space, holding the tin of Lemon Butter Wafers I’d baked earlier that day in Times Leader test kitchen.
Of course, she was welcome to another cookie, after apparently enjoying the first.
Regular readers know I enjoy collecting quotes from taste testers, and that post-choir rehearsal comment from Ann Manganiello is my favorite of the week. Speaking of favorites, these lemon cookies seem destined to gain that designation in my repertoire.
The recipe is the third I’ve tried that I found in the mystery novel, “The Last Suppers,” by Diane Mott Davidson, and they’ve all been very tasty.
I just returned the book to the Osterhout Library, after Mark had a chance to read it, too. He didn’t enjoy the story about a mystery-solving caterer as much as I did, but he does like the recipes. He was especially complimentary when he tasted the lemon cookies, literally patting me on the back as he said something along the lines of “perfect lemon flavor.”
It was as if he was making up for his interrogation of the week before, when he’d demanded to know if I’d used sour milk or rancid macadamia nuts when I baked the Canterbury Jumbles.
Eventually, he came to the conclusion that his sense of taste must have been “off” that evening.
But, back to the Lemon Butter Wafers, which were quite popular everywhere I distributed them.
I handed out most of them as plain wafers, but there also were a few I had turned into sandwich cookies, using raspberry jam, which was a variation the author suggested.
“It’s moister with the jam, crispier without,” my fellow alto Mary Ann Butera said after choir practice.
“I like them both,” soprano Kathy Shucoski said. “They remind me of a macaroon.”
“They’re refreshing,” alto Tracy Carney said.
“And how often do you describe a cookie as refreshing?,” said bass Steve Barrouk, perhaps pointing out just how rare a cookie flavored primarily with lemon zest can be.
“I never had a lemon cookie before,” reporter Jen Learn-Andes said in the newsroom. “Do I detect nuts?”
Yes, I told her, the cookies also contain almonds that I ground to a powder-like consistency in a coffee grinder, just as the recipe directed. The recipe also recommended using a coffee grinder to mince the lemon zest, but I used a cheese grater, with results that seemed quite delicate.
“It’s a subtle flavor (of lemon), not over-powering,” reporter Sam Zavada praised the cookies.
“I love lemon cookies,” page designer Ashley Bringmann said, declaring these were to her liking.
“I love raspberry jam,” reporter Margaret Roarty said, so you know which variety she chose. “The raspberry is a nice complement to the lemon.”
News editor Liz Baumeister, who is NOT a fan of raspberry, accepted a plain lemon variety, and gave it a thumbs up. “Now I want some lemonade,” she joked.
Whether you serve them with lemonade or milk or coffee or tea, these cookies are light, refreshing and easy to make. The hardest part might be waiting for the dough to chill. And, for the record, Mark and I both like the wafers better without the jam, so there’s nothing to compete with the lemon flavor.
LEMON BUTTER WAFERS
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sifted flour
2 tablespoons very finely minced lemon zest (see note)
1/3 cup ground almonds (see note)
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and add the sugar, beating until creamy. Beat in the eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour, beating just until combined. Add the lemon zest and almonds, stirring until well incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until well chilled, at least 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a nonstick cookie sheet. Using a 1/2-tablespoon measure, spoon out level 1/2 tablespoons of chilled cookie dough onto the cookie sheet, placing them 3 inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cookies have just flattened and are lightly browned around the edges. Cool the cookies on racks. Store in a covered tin. Makes 64.
Note: It is best to grind the almonds and mince the lemon zest in a small electric grinder such as a coffee grinder. The result is superior to that obtained with an ordinary food processor.
Variation: Spread 1 tablespoon best-quality seedless raspberry jam on the bottom of one cookie, then place the bottom of another cookie on top. This makes a delicious lemon-raspberry cookie sandwich. Makes 32.