On the tenth day of Christmas, ¯¯ my true love gave to me ¯¯… Lemon Orange Pecan Thumbprint Cookies.
Oh no, only two cookies left to post and I am done with holiday cookie baking for this year. I hope you are having fun with your own baking and maybe even trying a few of these treasured recipes.
I love the way these cookies look on the holiday cookie platter–festive, colorful and oh so appealing. They have flavor and texture dimensions too with a tender, citrus-flavored cookie, toasted pecans, and chewy, bright-flavored maraschino cherry.
Lemon Orange Pecan Thumbprint Cookies
There are many versions of this particular cookie, but none quite so tender and rich as this one. The addition of orange and lemon juice ensures a tender dough and adds a flavor nuance that is very appealing.
4 cups cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1½ cups unsalted butter, cool room temperature
1 cup extra-fine sugar
3 egg yolks
freshly grated zest of 1 large orange
freshly grated zest of 1 large lemon
3 tablespoons orange juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Finishing
4 egg whites, slightly beaten, in a small mixing bowl
12 ounces (3 cups) pecans, minced, in a small mixing bowl
16-ounce jar maraschino cherries in syrup, well drained and halved
1.In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
2.In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together thoroughly.
3.Add the egg yolks and beat until fluffy.
4.Add the vanilla extract, orange juice, and lemon juice and combine.
5.Refrigerate the dough for at least two hours.
6.With your hands, roll rounded two teaspoons (#70 commercial scoop) of dough into balls. Roll each ball in the egg white, then in chopped pecans.
7.Arrange, 1-inch apart on a lightly greased, parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
8.Press a cherry half into the center of each cookie, flattening slightly.
9.Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes, until the cookies are set and only slightly browning on the bottom.Cool on wire racks.
Makes about six dozen cookies.
Come Back for More
Here is the LunaCafe Christmas 2008 Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies initial post and game plan with links to the following twelve cookies. Links can also be found in the right sidebar.
On the 1st day of Christmas: Lily’s Swedish Vanilla Spritz
On the 2nd day of Christmas: Orange Vanilla Sugar Cookies
On the 3rd day of Christmas: Decidedly Lemon Teacakes
On the 4th day of Christmas: Once in a Chocolate-Spice Moon Cookies
On the 5th day of Christmas: Peppermint Stick Shortbread
On the 6th day of Christmas: Lemon-Lime Clove Sugar Cookies
On the 7th day of Christmas: Toasted Almond Black Cherry Shortbread
On the 8th day of Christmas: Green Tea and Rose Spritz
On the 9th day of Christmas: Almond Butter Poinsettia Cookies
On the 10th day of Christmas: Lemon OrangePecan Thumbprint Cookies
On the 11th day of Christmas: Candy Cane Butter Cookies
On the 12th day of Christmas: Ellen’s Swedish Pepparkakor
…
Your blog is inspiring. Thank you for all of your time & work.
I am new to Luna cafe–how do I print the amazing recipes so I might try to recreate them for my family? Or is there a book? Radar
Radar, MauJim, our site Admin, just added a print option, per your request, which appears at the bottom of each post. This will give you a print out of the entire post without the pictures and links. Hope this helps and thanks for asking!