Easter Egg Cookies

This year your decorated Easter eggs could be plump cookies--a treat that will delight children and adults alike. You bake light-textured cookies shaped like eggs, glaze 1/2 of the cookies with lemon icing and 1/2 with chocolate, then decorate all of them with the colored icing you can buy in tubes or pressurized cans.

• Preparation Time: 40 mins
• Cooking Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 55 mins
• Calories: 207 Calories

Ingredients

• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon warm water, or as needed
• ¾ cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons warm water, or as needed
• 1 ounce pre-melted unsweetened chocolate
• decorating icings or gels

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet.

Step 2

Cream powdered sugar and butter for cookies in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in lemon zest.

Step 3

Combine sifted flour with baking powder and salt. Sift again, then add to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, stirring after each addition until just combined. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Step 4

Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. Lightly dust your hands with flour and roll 2 tablespoons dough between your palms into a 3-inch long cylinder with tapering ends. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Step 5

Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are a pale straw color, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer cookies to wire racks. Allow to cool thoroughly, about 30 minutes.

Step 6

While the cookies are cooling, prepare icings. Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, and warm water for lemon icing in one bowl, and combine powdered sugar, warm water, chocolate, and vanilla for chocolate icing in a second bowl. Stir both icings until smooth and thin enough to pour.

Step 7

Put waxed paper under the racks of cookies. Pour about 1 tablespoon lemon icing over a cookie, beginning in the center and continuing around the sides until cookie is evenly coated. Repeat to frost 1/2 of the cookies with lemon icing and the other 1/2 with chocolate icing. Scoop up an icing that drips on the waxed paper and stir into the remaining icing. Use extra icing as needed to coat cookies. Let icing dry until no longer sticky, about 30 minutes.

Step 8

Use tubes or pressurized cans of decorating icing to make your own fanciful design of flowers, geometric shapes, or Easter motifs.