Author: Susan Murray, www.awomancooksinasheville.com
Ingredients
For the cookie
1cbuttersoftened
1csugar
2tspbaking powder
1tspsalt
2egg whites
2tbspheavy cream
1tsplemon extract
1tspvanilla
2 ¾ccake flour
Quick Icing
2 ½cpowdered sugar
1/3cheavy cream
½tsplemon extract
Yellow food coloringoptional
Instructions
Make the icing
Make the icing first by putting all of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and beating at medium speed for 5 minutes until it is soft and creamy. Scrape the icing into a smaller bowl and cover by laying plastic wrap on top. Set aside on the counter until needed. Continue with the cookie batter—no need to clean out the bowl!
Make the cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
Put the butter, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of the mixer and cream together for 5-8 minutes. It should be fluffy and pale in color.
Whisk together the egg whites, cream and vanilla until the eggs whites are well blended in. Add the mixture slowly, in a small stream to the batter, while the beater is running. Stop and scrape down the sides once halfway through
Add the flour and mix in low until it forms a soft dough. Finish mixing the dough by scraping the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula to make sure it is all incorporated.
Use a small cookie scoop to drop evenly sized balls of dough 2-3” apart on the cookie sheets. Bake the cookies until they puff up and are just starting to brown.
Cool them for 15 minutes on the pan before removing.
Ice the cookies.
If you are using the food coloring, stir in a few drops until it is evenly mixed in with no streaks of white. Spread 1-2 tsps of icing on each cookie and top with sprinkles immediately. The icing sets fast!