Small Packages

These lemon cookies are tiny, adorable and delicious.

You know what else is tiny, adorable and delicious?
My best friend's brand new baby girl.

Since there is no way I'm letting you nibble on her (unless of course you are her mother, or have explicit permission from her mother) you'll just have to make do with a recipe for the cookies.

LITTLE ICED LEMON COOKIES
adapted from Real Simple

Ingredients:
1/4 C butter (1.5 sticks)
3/4 C sugar
2 large egg yolks
1/2 t vanilla extract (I had a slight pouring mishap and put in a lot too much, no worries, still lovely)
2 t lemon juice
2 C flour (um, I totally lost track of the flour. I either added 1/4 C too little or too much. No idea which, also, still lovely)
for the glaze
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 t grated lemon zest
5/6 C confectioners sugar (although, you may need more, I probably did)

Directions:
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, vanilla, lemon juice and salt and beat until combined. Gradually add the flour. Divide the dough ( I did it in three sections) and roll into 1 1/4" diameter logs. Mine were somewhat smaller, but all the more adorable for it. Wrap in waxed paper (I was out and used plastic wrap) and refrigerate for 30 minutes (longer if harder makes it easier to cut).

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Slice the logs into 3/8" thick pieces and lay out on parchment (or silpat) covered baking sheets. I found a gentle sawing motion was the best for keeping the logs from becoming too flattened as I sliced. Baking is where things get tricky. I baked mine for 13-14 minutes and they were done. I mean, the first set, at 14 minutes was almost too done in places. The original recipe calls for 16-20 minutes, so please, check them early and pull them if they start to brown. You do NOT want brown lemon cookies. Let rest on the pan for 5 minutes then move to a rack to cool.

I kinda messed up the glaze, because it didn't harden. I have a huge problem getting glazes to harden for me. Never any good at it. Anyway, the recipe tells you to mix 1 C confectioner's sugar with 2 T of lemon juice and the zest to form a "thick but pourable glaze" and then dip the tops of each let harden for 15 minutes. I heated my sugar and juice mixture, dipped and then it never did harden, it's a sticky situation, but just as yummy. Turns out that cookies, like babies can be messy sometimes, but hopefully, delicious enough that they're worth it.