Meyer Lemon Cookies (Sables)

To Make Dough

1. Gather all the ingredients. I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.
2. Cut 4 oz unsalted butter into smaller pieces (so that they will soften faster). It’s important to soften (not melt) the butter before we start.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
4. Add 3½ Tbsp confectioners’ sugar and blend until soft and light. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
5. Sift 1 cup cake flour and 1.4 oz almond flour/meal (⅓ cup + 2 tsp) into the bowl.
6. Add the zest from 3 Meyer lemons. Make sure you just zest the yellow peel, not the pith (white bitter part).
7. Add 2 tsp whole milk and mix all together with the silicone spatula.
8. At the beginning, the dough is crumbly, but it eventually will come together into a ball.
9. Because the dough will be still too soft to roll into a log shape, take out the dough from the bowl and wrap with plastic wrap. Keep in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
10. Take out the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap. Shape the dough into a cylinder, about 1½ inches (4 cm) in diameter.
11. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours. Optional: you can place the dough on a bed of rice while chilling. It helps to keep the dough in nice cylindrical shape, so your cookie slices won’t be flat on one side.

To Bake the Cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the oven temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking liner.
2. Take out the cookie log (dough) from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. In a tray that fits the cookie dough, sprinkle 2 Tbsp white sparkling sugar on the log. Roll the cookie log on the sparkling sugar until the log is covered.
3. The sugar should stick without any issue. However, before rolling, you could also wrap the dough with a damp paper towel so that the dough will be slightly wet or brush egg wash on the dough (the traditional method).
4. With a sharp knife, slice the dough into rounds ⅓ inch (7 mm) thick. Place them on the baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of space between the cookies.
5. Lower the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC) and bake the cookies for about 25 minutes, or until the edge of the cookies start to get golden brown.
6. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, carefully transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

To Store

1. If you pack the cookies in an airtight container, they will keep for at least 4 days. You can also freeze the unbaked log of dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 months. Let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting and baking. Do not let the dough fully defrost.