Well I don't know what you've been up to the past two days but I've been dealing with a seven year old with the flu, yes, THAT flu. Actually other than the house arrest and the VERY bored preschooler, it hasn't been too bad. He's sick, which sucks, but he isn't so horrible that I have to hover over him, and he's still in the sleeping all the time stage so it's really been pretty quiet around our house. Other than the aforementioned bored three year old. And the constant stream of movies I've been playing to try to keep her occupied and quiet and him satisfied to lie still and rest between naps and Motrin doses.
Partly because of the flu thing and partly because it's Friday, my normal cleaning day and also partly because it's gray and dull outside and I needed a little pick me up, I went a little crazy with the cleaning thing today. Into the washing machine went all the sheets, comforter covers, pillow cases and liners, slipcovers, throw pillows, lap blankets... you get the idea. And once I'd washed and dried everything (I love my new washer and dryer by the way, it's amazing how, when your machines aren't 20 years old, you can dry more than one thing at a time without having to run it multiple times, CRAZY!) and put all the covers and sheets and blankets etc back on, swept the floors, washed out the sinks, dusted the shelves and so on, I still felt the need to perk up the house, so out came the recipe books. After a little page flipping I settled on these lemon butter cookies form Chocolate and Zucchini. It's been a while since I mentioned this blog but I really do love it, and it's always fun to try her recipes because generally they are pretty darn good, these included
Sables au Citron
1 lemon
1 cup plus 2 T flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
7 T chilled butter, diced
1 large egg yolk
1 cup powdered sugar
zest the lemon (it should give you about 2 T of zest) and set the lemon aside for the glaze. I rolled the lemon before zesting so that it would be easier to juice later. Mix the zest with the flour, sugar and salt and then work in the butter with a pastry blender or your fingers (washed REALLY well if your kids has the flu, well, really well even if your kid doesn't because let's face it, they have all sorts of germs on their grubby little selves don't they?)
Add the yolk and blend with a fork until a dough forms, if it seems dry, add a little ice water, I needed about 1 T for mine to really pull together as a decent formable dough.
Divide the dough in two and roll into logs about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and pop them in the freezer for 30 minute before slicing into 1/4 inch rounds. Bake at 350 on a parchment covered baking sheet for about 12 minutes or until the edges are just starting to turn golden.
Pull the parchment and cookies off the pan to cool (or use a wire rack). Once they are cool you can glaze them with a mixture of the lemon juice whisked with the powdered sugar. They are great without the glaze as well though.
I think these are going to wind up in my Christmas baking file, they would be a great light treat around the holidays. If you taste the dough you may find it a little salty but it works beautifully in the finished product. If I had a cookie press I think this recipe might be altered to work well there as well. Humm, maybe an early Christmas Gift for me! Well, off to take temperatures and administer another dose of medicine. Stay well everyone!