The first step with this recipe is infuse some unsalted butter with earl grey tea. I’d suggest making a large-ish batch — it’s delicious and you can store leftovers in the freezer for later use. I used Stef Pollack’s method.
I think of icebox cookies as being somewhat midway between a sugar cookie and a shortbread. It’s possible that my favourite thing about them, though, is that they don’t need to be rolled out. Just form ‘em into a log, chill (hence the name) and slice.
Ingredients
113 grams earl grey-infused butter, at room temperature
67 grams (⅓ cup) sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
zest of one lemon
1⅓ cups gluten-free flour (around 195 grams for the mix I use)
¼ teaspoon salt
Coarse sugar, as needed (about ⅓ cup)
Instructions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the earl grey-infused butter with the sugar and mix on medium high until light and fluffy — about four minutes.
Add the egg and lemon zest and mix until combined — about one more minute.
Add the flour and salt. Mix until fully incorporated.
Pull a length of plastic wrap. Using your hands, shape the dough into a log, and then use the plastic wrap to perfect the shape of the log. You can make it into a circle; you can also make it a square if you like. The diameter of the log will determine the width of the cookies.
Make sure the dough is completely wrapped in the plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Or make the dough a day ahead and chill it overnight.
When the dough is fully chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Thickly scatter some coarse sugar onto your counter, or some parchment paper, or a baking sheet. Remove the log from the plastic wrap. Place it on top of the sugar and roll, coating the dough in sugar. If it’s not sticking — or if any spots are indented a bit and not picking up sugar — pick some sugar up and gently press it in.
Slice the log of cookie dough into slices about ¼ inch thick slices and transfer them to the baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for about 9 to 11 minutes, or until they are slightly golden brown around the edges.
Remove from the oven. Let them sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
Cool completely before serving. When warm, the cookies will be a little oddly soft. When cooled, they’ll become more like, well, icebox cookies — somewhere midway between sugar cookies and shortbread.
