Lemon Pie Cookies

Filled Cookies

Anything lemon is good to me and anything with cream cheese makes it even better so when I saw this recipe on 5 Ingredient Fix (one of my DVR shows - ie. shows you can fast forward through the parts you don't care about), I decided to make them. I wrote down the name of the recipe to print later. On reading the recipe while I was making the cookie dough, I noticed that there didn't seem to be the right ratio of sugar to flour, esp. if a cream cheese frosting was going to be used (it's actually a filling, but same diff) because cream cheese frostings are not typically very sweet. So I went to the comments section of the recipe online (should have done this the first time I looked at the recipe) and realized that on the show - part I fast forwarded through - Claire Robinson used 2 cups of sugar for cookies and 8 oz. of cream cheese for the filling (recipe on Food Network website calls for 1 cup and 4 oz. respectivley). So I adjusted the sugar to 1 2/3 c of confectioner's sugar and 8 oz of cream cheese for the filling.

I don't know what kind of lemons Food Network gets their people, but it took 2 lemons to get 2 Tbs of lemon juice? Really? Not for me - 1 lemon worked fine for juice, though two were needed for zest.  


Lemon Pie Cookies
adapted from Claire Robinson

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar, divided, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon zest, divided 
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, 1 2/3 cups of the sugar and salt until smooth. Add all of the lemon juice and half of the zest. On a low speed, add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until just incorporated. Turn the cookie dough out onto a board and roll it into a log. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cubed rolls of dough

Remove log from the refrigerator and cut it into thin 1/4-inch thick discs. Arrange the discs on 2 silicone or parchment lined baking sheets, 1-inch apart, and bake until the edges are just golden, about 15 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile mix cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners' sugar lemon zest (1 Tbs.) and 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice.

Top half of the cookies with the cream cheese mixture and cover with another cookie to make a sandwich. Dust the top of the cookie sandwiches with confectioners' sugar.

Comments: How long will these keep? What's the best way to store them? I am getting so used to detailed blog recipes that a recipe like this is sort of, well, not up to par. Who writes these things, oh, and more importantly, who checks with the person presenting the recipe to see if they are the same? It's really a disservice to the recipe creator to not print what is shown on the show or intended by the recipe creator. 
All that said, these cookies are good. Really crispy, lemony, and not too sweet, but sweet enough. They are good sandwich cookies, but also great as a regular refrigerator cookie. These will stay in the rotation.