I’ve been meaning to make the Glazed Lemon Cookies from May Martha Stewart Everyday Food for a while, then I got the Cookie of the Day email about it and that got me off my butt and into the kitchen. Last night was Mr. MarthaandMe’s birthday and he always has gingerbread with lemon sauce, so I just made a lemon sauce last night. Making some lemon cookies felt like a natural extension of that.
The dough mixed up and was very crumbly. I had a moment of panic when it felt like it wasn’t going to come together. I turned off the mixer and went at it with a wooden spoon and was able to smush it together into dough. It was still quite crumbly though and it was a bit messy on the baking sheet.
I popped them in the oven and this recipe actually cooked in exactly the time it was supposed to, which might be a first for me with a Martha baking recipe. The cookies didn’t spread much at all.
After they come out, you put together the glaze (just powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest) and spoon it over after they’ve cooled for just a few minutes. I find glaze to be a bit frustrating in general – not thick enough to be a frosting and too soupy to really stick. I admit I applied the glaze while the cookies were still on the baking sheet. I couldn’t face the idea of having to wash a cooling rack also!
I got it on though and let it rest. then I decided to use a little more since I really had a giant bowl of glaze left. The second application stayed on a little better, so maybe let these cool a little longer than the recipe says (or maybe if you take them off the baking sheets they will cool faster).
I liked these cookies. They are very sweet and very lemony with just the right amount of crunch. I also liked the fact that they were very easy to make. No chilling of the dough, no crazy ingredients. Very simple and delicious. A good thing!
Martha and Me 
Thanks for the great description about the recipe, it helps.
Thanks! Glad to know it’s helpful!
Thanks for your notes! These are about the best cookies ever. I am not sure why your dough was crumbly. The dough I made came out with the consistency of peanut butter. I am a totally inexperienced baker so it was luck not skill. One thing I did was pat the 2nd batch of cookies down into a disk like cookie shape. It held the glaze better. My first batch looked like yours, sort a small scone. It was delicious but I wanted more of a cookie appearance.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing your results. It’s nice to hear how things turn out for others.
Just something I noticed…the recipes says that you are supposed to cool them completely on the wire rack before you glaze them. After you glaze them, you are supposed to allow them to set for an hour. It didn’t work for you, because you glazed it before they cooled. I would also recommend using spoons to drop the dough on the sheet. It looks like you used something similar to a small ice cream scooper. Filling a small scoop like that will make the dough pile too tall and cause them to come out looking more like a small scone (as Kurt described them).