Author: The Endless Meal (http://www.theendlessmeal.com)
Serves: Makes 9 small and 9 large cookies
Ingredients
- For the cookies: 1 cup butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 2 cups flour, plus more for rolling the dough
- ½ teaspoon salt
- For decorating the cookies: 2 large egg whites
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Red and black food colouring
- Poppy seeds, for sprinkling
Instructions
- To Make the Cookies: Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and juice until combined. Beat in flour, salt and poppy seeds. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and roll out to ¼ inch thickness. Cut out cookies using 2 or three different size cookie cutters. Transfer to a baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Bake until the edges just start to brown, 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely
- To Make Icing: beat egg whites until firm but not dry. Add icing sugar and lemon juice and beat to combine. Add more lemon juice if too thick or more icing sugar if too thin. Tint a large portion red, a small portion black and leave the remaining white
- To Decorate Cookies: Trace an outline around the cookie with the red icing, following the poppy shape. Pipe a dot of icing into each of the petals and feather to cover each petal. Immediately make a circle of small dots in the middle with the white icing. Using a toothpick draw the white icing to the edges of the poppy. Once the icing is set, pipe a large white dot in the centre of each cookie. Once the dot is set, pipe a black line around the dot and immediately sprinkle with poppy seeds. Allow to set completely before storing.
