Glazed Citrus Doodles

The weather has turned a bit cold, wet and gray, as of late. But who am I to complain after such an amazingly mild winter? To counter the gray, I turned to these bright and cheerful cookies from the May issue of Everyday Food magazine.  It’s their riff on the cookie-favorite, snickerdoodle.  Here, they’ve swapped out the traditional cinnamon for the zest of lemons and oranges. And they’ve gilded-the-cookie with a tart and delicious citrus glaze.

While at the grocer on Sunday, picking up my citrus, I came across a pile of Meyer lemons. I’ve always wanted to incorporate these citrus jewels into a recipe, but have rarely seen them at the store. I decided this would finally be my opportunity.

The cookie batter comes together very quickly. Most of the prep time revolves around zesting the lemons and oranges. If you find ostrich egg-sized navel oranges, like I did, you’ll only need one. Seriously, they were huge. I ended up adding about another 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar to the glaze recipe to stiffen it up a bit. Start with amount listed in the recipe and add by a few tablespoons until you reach the consistency that you are looking for. Also, I baked my cookies for the full 15 minutes. Check yours at 12 minutes, you’ll just want them to brown a bit at the edges.

Glazed Citrus Doodles – adapted slightly from Everyday Food – May 2012

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 3 tablespoons orange juice (from 2 oranges)
• 4 teaspoons Meyer lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice (from 2 Meyer lemons)
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, 1 tablespoon of orange zest, and 2 teaspoons of Meyer lemon zest on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs one at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Do not over mix the dough.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. A 1 1/2 tablespoon ice cream scoop makes quick and perfect portioned work of this. Placed rolled balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake until the edges are lightly golden, 12-15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer to cookie racks to cool completely.

For the glaze, whisk together 1 tablespoon orange zest, 2 teaspoons Meyer lemon zest, both citrus juices and confectioner’s sugar until smooth.  Add additional confectioner’s sugar by tablespoon until the glaze is a spreadable consistency. With a small spoon, spread glaze over each cooled cookie. Let set 1 hour.

*A special thank you to Greg for capturing the photo of me glazing the cookies. He was compensated in freshly baked cookies.