Palm Beach Lemon Cookies

Yield: 100 small thin cookies
Source: Cookies Unlimited

Ingredients:

• 3 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c sugar
• Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
• 3 ea eggs, seperated
• 4 tbsp strained lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking sode and salt, stir well to mix.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on the medium speed until well mixed, about a minute, then beat in the lemon zest.
3. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Lower the mixer speed and beat in half the flour mixture, then all the lemon juice. Scrape the bowl and beater well; beat in the remaining flour mixture.
4. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and shape and squeeze it into two rough cylinders, about 8 inch long and 2 inches in diameter.
5. Roll a piece of parchment or wax paper around each piece of dough and tighten the paper by pressing it in with the side if a cookie sheet or piece of stiff cardboard. Chill the dough until firm. Or at this stage, it can be double wrapped in plastic, frozen and kept for up to several weeks.
6. When you are ready to bake the cookies, set the rack in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheated to 350 degrees.
7. In a samll bowl, beat the egg whites with a fork, just until mixed. Cut each log into apporximately 48 cookies. Make sure to rotate the roll of dough often so it doesn't become squashed from the weight of the knife.
8. Arrage the cookies on thr prepared pans about an inch apart in all directions. Brush the surface of each cook with the egg whits, then sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of sugar. Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, until they have spread slightly and are a very pale golden color. Slide the papers from the pans to racks.
9. After the cookies have cooled, store them btween sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.