This Spanish recipe for Polvorones De Limon or Lemon Sugar Cookies is a culinary delight of chewy lemon goodness straight from the heart of Madrid. They are soft and chewy and packed with big, bold lemon flavor for all you lemon lovers!
A Few Cookie Baking Tips:
- We recommend using a stand mixer to make this dough, although a handheld mixer is better than just a mixing spoon. Creaming the butter, sugar, and lemon zest is a tall task.
- Insure your butter is softened, but not so soft that it is melt-y or greasy.
- Do Not place your cookie dough on a hot cookie sheet. Always allow baking sheets to cool between cookie batches.
- For best results, bake one cookie sheet at a time in the center rack.
- When the cookies come out of the oven, they should be soft and appear under-baked. The cookies will finish cooking while they cool on the cookie sheet. This will help keep them soft, even after they’ve cooled.
I bet you find that if you eat just one of these Polvorones De Limon fresh out of the oven, your life will change forever. Well, that might be a bit of a stretch but they are flipping good. They melt in your mouth while they are still warm. These Lemon Sugar Cookies just seem to have a little bit of everything. The edges are lightly crisp and the center is fluffy and light.
Polvorones De Limon ~ Lemon Sugar Cookies
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Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 ½ tbsp lemon zest see recipe notes
- 1 large egg
- 1 additional egg yoak
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup powdered sugar for rolling cookies
Cinimon Sugar Mix
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer (or use a stand mixer!), combine butter, sugar, and lemon zest. Beat until creamy and well-combined.
- Stir in egg and egg yolk, lemon extract, and vanilla extract until completely combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- Gradually (with mixer on low-speed), add flour mixture to butter mixture until completely combined. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure all ingredients are completely incorporated.
- Scoop cookie dough by level 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized scoop and roll between your palms until you have a smooth ball. Roll ball through powdered sugar and place on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing cookies at least 2” apart.
- Bake on 350F for 9-11 minutes and sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon sugar mix on top of each cookie and allow to cool completely on the baking sheet.
Notes
Nutrition
History of the Lemon Tree
The precise origin of the lemon tree (Citrus limon) is unknown, although some botanists believe it comes from Kashmir, north of India. Another possibility is that the lemon tree originated in Southeast Asia, based on ancient documents that suggest a cultivation history of over 4,000 years. There are also records of the lemon tree’s introduction in Italy in about the year 200, and Iraq and Egypt by around the year 700. Lemon trees reached China between the eighth and the 13th centuries.
The illustration on a ceramic tile found in the ruins of Pompeii following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., showed that citrus trees already existed during that time. A 2nd-century mosaic tile from the ruins of a Roman villa in Carthage, North Africa was of a lemon growing on a tree branch. Despite those signs, the age of the lemon tree and its place of origin remain open questions.
New World Time Frame
In 1493, lemon trees arrived in the “New World” in the form of seeds. Christopher Columbus brought them to America on one of his voyages of discovery. By 1565 lemon trees grew at Saint Augustine, Florida, and coastal South Carolina.
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