These cookies take on a new form of easter egg coloring this spring. Keep it simple with Earl Grey and lemon glaze or have fun with it and make each color a new flavor! ...Or just let the placebo take effect because apparently, the yellow ones tasted the most lemony.
Bunny Day circa 2020 via the newly released Animal Crossing New Horizons made me nearly despise the sight of Easter eggs. Of course, you don't need me to retell those horrors. I'm even hesitant to dust off my Nintendo Switch now that the season is back in full swing. But I think I can make an exception for these lemon-glazed shortbread cookies. Robin eggs are essentially the spring equivalent of candy corn in this house. Obligated to get them, but if you eat more than 3, your sweet tooth will be oversaturated for the season. These cookies offer that classic look without sacrificing your appetite for the day, and they're especially good with afternoon tea! As I was decorating them, all I could think about were the times we dip-dyed hard-boiled eggs for our table's centerpiece growing up. And while I love these for their simplicity and overall rustic look, I believe there is much room for creativity when recreating these at home.
Earl Grey Robin Eggs Shortbread Cookies with Lemon Glaze
Makes approx 30 cookies
Earl Grey Shortbread
360 g all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons loose leaf earl grey tea
1/2 teaspoons salt
226 g softened butter, preferably European
56 g confectioner's sugar
84 g honey
Instructions:
Add the flour, tea, salt, and confectioner's sugar to a food processor and pulse several times until the tea is spotted in the flour. Add the honey and butter and pulse to form a dough. It should be very soft and somewhat sticky.
Place the dough on a piece of parchment. Roughly form it into a log before wrapping the parchment around it and rolling to help shape the dough into an oval. Place the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour, or until the dough just starts to firm up.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the parchment from the dough and cut it into equal slices, about 1/4" thick. Take each slice and gently shape the top to be more pointed to resemble an egg. Place each cookie on a parchment lined sheetpan about 2" apart and bake until the edges appear golden brown, approximatly 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Lemon Glaze
2 lemons
Confectioner's sugar, as needed
Liquid food coloring, pink, blue, and yellow
Instructions:
Juice the 2 lemons, making sure to strain the seeds a pulp. Add the juice to a mixing bowl and gradually add powdered sugar to make a thin glaze. You want the glaze to be thin enough for the tea to still spot through but thick enough to color the cookie.
Add glaze to 3 small bowls, reserving some of the plain white glaze as well. Color each bowl with a very small drop of pink, blue and yellow food coloring each.
Place a piece of parchment underneath the rack that the cookies are on. Dip the tops of each cookie in the colored icing, lightly draggin it along the edge of the bowl to remove some excess glaze. Return the cookies to the rack and let the icing set completely.
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