The drawn lemon cookies are delicate shortbread cookies: good to eat, beautiful to see, and perfect to gift. To draw on the cookies, I used stencils and a pearlescent powder applied with a brush. The recipe for drawn lemon cookies is the same tried and true recipe I always use when stamping and drawing on shortcrust pastry (the tested recipe by Miriam Bonizzi that comes along with the molds). Try them and enjoy drawing with stencils. I purchased all the equipment for the cookies from Cocorò. Non-affiliate links are provided in the notes at the end of the article.

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Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Cheap
Rest time: 2 Hours 15 Minutes
Preparation time: 40 Minutes
Portions: 30 Pieces
Cooking methods: Oven, Electric oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

The butter should be cold from the refrigerator and the egg at room temperature. These measurements are suitable for using the cookie stamp and decorative stencil. Using a classic recipe or changing the measurements risks the design disappearing during baking.
With the indicated amounts, I obtained 30 cookies with a thickness of 1/4 inch.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 lemon (grated zest)

Tools

1 Mixer Kitchen Aid Artisan
1 Rolling Pin with thickness rings
1 Baking Tray perforated
1 Grater Microplane

Steps

In the bowl of the stand mixer with the paddle attachment, work all the ingredients until compact and well combined: flour, powdered sugar, butter in pieces, egg, and lemon zest.
Take the dough and work it on the work surface forming a slightly flattened rectangular block. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for two hours.
After resting, bring the block back to the lightly floured work surface and use the rolling pin with 1/4 inch thickness rings to roll out the dough. Cut the cookies with the wavy-edged cookie cutter.
Place the chosen stencil on one cookie at a time, pressing gently to adhere. Using a brush, sprinkle the pearlescent powder by dabbing the stencil at the design: use just a little please! Grasp it by two opposite corners and gently lift the stencil. Clean it and continue with all the cookies in the same way. For photos of the steps, refer to the recipe “decorated shortbread cookies“.
Place the cookies on a perforated baking tray and refrigerate for 15 minutes, then bake at 350°F static, preheated for 15 minutes.