Meyer Lemon Cookies (Sables)
Buttery, citrusy and slightly sweet sable cookies, with a lovely hint of Meyer lemon zest. These crisp and crumbly Meyer Lemon Cookies are a perfect tea-time company!
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Ingredients
- 113 g unsalted butter (4 oz or 1 stick)
- 30 g confectioners’ sugar/powder sugar (1 oz or 3 ½ Tbsp)
- 125 g cake flour (4.4 oz or 1 cup minus 2 tsp)
- 40 g almond flour/meal (1.4 oz or 1/3 cup plus 2 tsp) (blanched)
- 3 Meyer lemons (we only use zest)
- 10 ml whole milk (2 tsp)
- 30 g white sparkling sugar (2 Tbsp)
Instructions
To Make Dough:
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Gather all the ingredients first.
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Cut the unsalted butter into smaller pieces (so that they will soften faster). It’s important to soften (not melt) the butter before we start.
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In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
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Add the powder sugar and blend until soft and light. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
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Sift the cake flour and almond meal into the bowl.
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Add zest from 3 Meyer lemons. Make sure you just zest the yellow skin, not pith (white bitter part).
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Add the milk and mix all together with the silicone spatula.
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At the beginning, the dough is crumbly, but it will come together into a ball.
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Because the dough will be still too soft to roll into a log shape, take out the dough from the bowl and wrap with plastic wrap. Keep in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
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Take out the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap. Shape the dough into a cylinder, about 1.5 inches (4 cm) diameter.
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Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours. Optional: you can place the dough on a bed of rice while chilling. It helps the dough in nice cylindrical shape, so your cookie slices won’t be flat on one side.
To Bake Cookies:
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Preheat the oven to 375 ºF (190 ºC) degrees. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking liner.
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Take out the cookie log (dough) from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. In a tray that fits the cookie dough, sprinkle the white sparkling sugar. Roll the cookie log on the sparkling sugar until the log is covered with sugar.
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The sugar should stick without any issue, but you could wrap the dough with a damp paper towel so that the dough will be slightly wet or brush egg wash on the dough (traditional method).
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With a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1/3 inches (7 mm)-thick rounds. Place them on the baking sheet, leaving about 1” (2.5 cm) between rounds.
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Lower the oven temperature to 350 ºF (180 ºC) and bake the cookies for about 25 minutes, or until the edge of the cookies start to get golden brown.
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Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; then carefully transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
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If you pack the cookies in an airtight container, they will keep for at least 4 days. You can also freeze the unbaked log of dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 months. Let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting and baking. Do not let the dough fully defrost.
Recipe Notes
Cake Flour: A properly measured cup of cake flour weighs 4.25 oz (120 g). The weight for 1 cup flour varies on how you measure it. When you measure flour by volume, please follow the methods below. I’ve tested this method many times, and if you do it properly, 1 cup is VERY close to 120 g each time.
- Fluff up the flour several times with a spoon.
- Using the spoon, sprinkle the flour into your dry measuring cup (the one that measures exactly a cup at the top).
- Scrape off the excess with a knife.
White Sparkling Sugar: It can be replaced with granulated sugar. Sparking sugar has large grain so that it won't melt and disappear. It gives nice look as well as nice crunch when you bite to it.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.