Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

These lemon poppy seed cookies have the bright and zesty flavor of fresh lemon juice and zest, along with the slight crunch of the poppy seeds. In order to make the lemon taste not too tart, you usually have to add a little more sugar. So instead I added a little ricotta cheese to tame down the sharpness of the lemon.

To add to the cookie, there is a simple lemon glaze that just brings a burst of flavor to this springtime treat. Perfect for that first cookout of the season.

Ingredients for Cookie and Glaze

COOKIES

• Butter unsalted
• Sugar white
• Lemon juice
• Lemon zest 
• Ricotta cheese
• Vanilla extract
• All-purpose flour
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Ground cinnamon
• Kosher salt
• Poppy seed

LEMON GLAZE

• Powdered sugar
• Lemon juice
• Lemon zest

How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

As always, I start by getting all my ingredients ready and set up around the mixer bowl. This is so I do not forget any ingredient or in what order to add to the bowl.

Prepping

I weigh or measure the sugar and set it aside. In another bigger bowl, weigh or measure the flour. I add to the flour the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Run a whisk through to blend all together.

Next, I get a cutting board and cut the ends off the lemons. This is so when I am zesting the lemon I do not have to worry about zesting around the knob.

Zest the lemons into a bowl and then cut them in half and juice all the lemons. Time to start the cookie mix.

Mixing the Cookie Dough

Cubing the butter lets me know how cold the butter is. I also like to cream the butter before I add the sugar.

It only takes about a minute on a medium mixer speed to cream the butter. Now add the sugar and mix on a medium mixer speed.

Since there is twice as much sugar as butter, is will not get fluffy or smooth. It will look grainy and clumpy even after 3 minutes of mixing on a medium mixer speed.

Adding the egg will help to blend the butter and sugar together. Mix until it brings together the butter and sugar. This should only take about a minute.

Now add the vanilla extract, lemon juice and zest, and the ricotta cheese. Mix until combined. Please note: when you add ricotta cheese and it mixes with the lemon juice, it can sometimes separate the ingredients and look like it is curdled. No fear. Once the flour is added, it will come together.

On a slow mixer speed, add about a third of the flour mixture at a time to the cookie dough. Once the flour is incorporated, add the poppy seeds. Just mix for about 5 seconds to spread the poppy seeds around the cookie dough. The more you mix, the tougher the cookies can get.

I take a spatula and make sure all the flour and poppy seeds are mixed in to the dough. Then, cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Scoop and Bake

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C or 180°C) and line 2 cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. I used a medium cookie scooper to add 12 scoops to a pan and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Move them to a cooling rack once you take them off the cookie sheet pan. Let them cool before you start the lemon glaze.

Mixing Lemon Glaze

After mixing the cookie dough, I used all the zest but still had some of the juice left. I zest and juice another lemon for the glaze. The reason I do not do all the lemons at the same time is the zest kinda shrinks up and is not very fresh looking if it sits out for very long.

Now is the time to grab a bigger bowl, one that you can use a whisk to mix.

In your bowl, add all the powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest.

Whisk until there are no lumps and everything looks smooth.

I use a spoon to just drizzle the lemon glaze over the top of each cookie. You can taste part of a cookie to see if you want more or less of the glaze. You can also use a small piping bag with a small end cut off.

I let the glaze dry before adding them to a container.

Enjoy!

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