Old-fashioned sugar cookies

Don't these look like the cookies that the Cookie Monster eats?

I have now deemed this my go-to cookie recipe. The last time I made these my little cousin Sam said they were her most favorite cookies ever. This is high praise from a child (or maybe it isn't--she does only eat foods that are white or beige). I like this recipe because it is so simple and requires basic ingredients that I always have on hand: flour, baking soda, lemons, sugar, butter, eggs. Seriously, that's it. It did take me a few tries (and a few pounds around my mid-section) to perfect it to my liking.



I finally invested in a microplane grater and was very excited to try it out. The flour and baking soda mixture is on stand-by while the sugars are mixed together with the lemon zest. The scent the zest produces is intoxicating. I think I could get high off of it.


Butter, eggs and lemon juice (from half a lemon) are mixed in, then the flour mixture. I used a really small ice cream scoop and was able to fit 12 cookies on one large baking sheet. The original recipe says to use a 2-inch ice cream scoop which I've done before. It makes a much larger cookie but I like this smaller size (it somehow makes me feel like I'm eating less, although I'm probably eating more). An ice cream scoop is not necessary, a regular spoon will do (which I've also done before), but the ice cream scoop makes a perfect circle much easier to achieve. I also skipped the flattening/sanding sugar part of the original recipe, mostly out of laziness.


In my first batch, two of them stuck together. I hate when that happens.

Because these are a little smaller, I leave them in for about 10-11 minutes (rotating the pan half-way through), then let them cool on the pan for another 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. I find that this makes them very soft (I don't like crispy cookies).

A successful batch!

I ended up making about 52 cookies this way. They are not too sweet, with a hint of lemon. Yum. And the high from the lemon aroma is quite nice as well.