I had this recipe for Petite Lemon Curd Cookies bookmarked since way way back. It was actually physically bookmarked in my December 2003 edition of Gourmet magazine. I used to collect lots of food magazines and even though I no longer subscribe (my last issue was January 2006), I can’t bear to throw them away. I know that all the Gourmet and Bon Appetit recipes are available on-line, but there’s something special about these magazines to me. They signify the time in my life when I decided to break free of the Chinese-American mold (I was told I would be an attorney since birth) and devote my life to food. There have definitely been some tough times. Working with food is not very lucrative, and I’ll certainly never make what I could have as a lawyer, but as I finished up these pictures and sat down for a few afternoon cookies, I felt completely at peace and in place. I know this is what I was meant for.
I did play with the recipe a bit, swapping the lemon curd for a lime curd (adapted from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess) and adding poppy seeds to the cookies.
Little Lime Curd Cookies
~makes 50+ sandwich cookies
Poppy Seed Cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar + extra for dusting
Lime Curd
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 medium eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
Instructions –
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Reduce sped to low and mix in flour mixture, just until combined.
3. Separate into two balls. Flatten both into 6″ discs and wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour.
4. Make lime curd while dough is chilling. Melt butter in a heavy bottom sauce pan. Whisk in the remaining ingredients and whisk over low heat until it thickens. Remove immediately to a glass bowl. Cover with plastic wrap against the curd. Chill until completely cool.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, 30 minute before you are baking cookies.
6. Roll out dough on a well floured cookie sheet, to just less than 1/4″ thick. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. Cut with 1.25″ round cutter and place cookies on another un-greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 8 minutes, or until lightly golden at the edges. Rotate sheet pans in the middle if your oven is not heated evenly. I find that some cookies at the edges will still brown too much so I just ate those, haha
8. Toss warm cookies into confectioner’s sugar. Place on cooling racks to cool completely.
9. To assemble cookie, I find it easiest to use a small squeeze bottle. If you don’t have one, use a piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner snipped. Don’t fill the curd to the edges. When you put the top cookie on, it will squeeze outward a bit.
Note: If you want the cookies for another day, don’t assemble. Put the poppy seed cookies between wax paper in an air tight container and keep at room temperature (after completely cooled). Keep the lime curd refrigerated. Assemble as close to serving as possible and dust with some more confectioner’s sugar.
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I have an important question that I think only FoodMayhem can answer. First the premise. We know what a baker’s dozen is, you buy 12 of an item and get a thirteenth free. Very simple. SO if you buy 12 dozen of an item, you would get 156 (12*13) instead of 144 (12*12). HOWEVER, if you buy 12 units of one dozen each, wouldn’t it follow that you should get a 13th unit of 1 dozen also? (the 13th dozen is free) so wouldn’t it really be 156 PLUS another 12 equaling a total of 168? I guess the first is a linear bonus scheme and the second is a logarithmic progression. In any event, which is the standard approach and which would be fairer? This is VERY important to me, please help FoodMayhem and readers.
The poppy seed cookies are just too much! We could eat those all day even without the curd filling.
sounds delicous and they look beautiful!
Bill, I don’t know the answer to your question but you do have me wondering…When I was in HS, my brother and I took Tae Kwon Do classes and there was a Dunkin Donuts underneath our school that had a buy 1 dozen get 1 dozen free on Fridays thing. I used to eat a dozen donuts every Fri in the car ride home (no more than 10 minutes). I’m wondering now if I should have been eating 13 instead of 12, considering I am a baker and all.
Those cookies look lovely! I adore citrus curds.
oh such cute cookies!
i’m enjoying lime so much right now, so i’m thrilled about your simple substitution here. the poppy seeds are a nice change too, and although i giggle every time i say the word “curd,” these are undeniably gorgeous little gems.
Jessica, my question must be answered. Let’s get Lon on this thing!
Bill – Using linear regression I calculated the coefficients of the two datasets (standard Baker’s Dozen vs. Bill’s Dozen). Both are clearly linear (not logarithmic as you suggested) with R of 1.0 (highly accurate). Further, the Baker’s slope is 1.1705 while yours is 1.0837. This is a difference of 8%. Overtime, the difference is huge. For instance, if I bought 1000 doughnuts at the Baker’s rate, I’d get 1084, whereas in the Bill G’ bakery I’d get 1170, that’s quite a few extra calories.
The meaningful difference is that your approach provides twice the incentive as the existing approach and would likely bankrupt the bakery quickly. Consider that most businesses would give away up to 10% of their revenue in order to grow sales, this is seen in either commission, marketing, coupons, or both. Your suggestion indicates that you would give away over 17%.
THANKS LON, that’s why we read FoodMayhem!
Uh ohhh, I just realized a huge flaw in your reasoning. Businesses tend to spend 10% of REVENUE to grow sales, but giving away 17% of doughnuts might only mean a very small percentage of revenue (the product itself may cost very little compared to other expenses of doing business – rent, labor, etc.). For example, at 7-Eleven the 96 ounce enormo soda only costs a little bit more than the 32 ounce tiny soda because the cost of soda is very small, once the sale is locked in, every extra penny justifies any reasonable increase in the amount of product sold. Perhaps the same reasoning applies to doughnuts. On the basis of cost alone, I do not think we can eliminate the Bill Dozen theory of running a bakery business.
OOOooh,….AAaaah,…these lovely filled lime curd cookies look to die for,…Yum Yum Yum! I bet they tasted fabulous!! Georgous !
I even would like to eat a few of them, now,…MMMMMMMMMM….