Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

For Easter, I baked Lemon Sugar Cookies and put aside half of the dough for Easter Sugar Cookies and the remainder for Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies. This year instead of dying the coconut green like I did for my Bird's Nest Cookies last year,  I toasted the coconut. Years ago, I made Easter Egg Nests Coconut Cupcakes and those were fun to bake. I love baking Easter Cookies as much as I love to bake Halloween and Christmas Cookies. The lemon cookie pairs great with the toasted coconut, vanilla buttercream, and Cadbury eggs. The end result is one great tasting cookie.

Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Lemon and coconut fans you will really dig this cookie. The lemon cookie recipe is adapted from Sweetopia, but I reduced the granulated sugar by 1/2 cup and used vanilla sugar. For the ultimate lemon flavor, I added more lemon extract, lemon zest, and freshly squeezed lemon juice. In addition to the cookie ingredients, you need one bag of shredded coconut and one bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs (speckled jelly beans would also work). See recipe below.

Some of the Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Yield: 3 Dozen Cookies

Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and each stick cut into 8 cubes

2 Large Eggs

1 1/2 cups Vanilla Sugar

5 cups All Purpose Flour (I use King Arthur)

Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Zest of 2 Lemons

3 tablespoons Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

1 tablespoon Pure Lemon Extract

1 teaspoon Coarse Salt

Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Directions
Cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces.

Sift flour and salt in large bowl and combine with whisk or spatula; set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment on low to medium speed. Mix until incorporated, about 1 minute.

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix again for 5-10 seconds more.

Add eggs one at a time. Scrape down bowl with spatula and mix again for another 5 seconds.

Pretty Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Add lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract, and mix for 30-45 seconds.

Slowly add flour mixture and mix on low speed for 1-2 minutes.

When dough clumps around paddle attachment it is ready.

Form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and cool in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Bird's Nest Lemon Cookie close-up

Take the dough and use a rolling pin and roll out between 2 pieces of parchment paper to desired thickness and with a round cutter cutout shapes.

Repeat until you use it all. I saved half of the dough for another recipe I baked the same evening.

Place circular shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and space apart 2 inches. Put in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. They hold their shape when you do this.

Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned. My cookies baked in 11 minutes.

Another close-up of Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies

Let cookies cool in baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Let cookie sheets cool completely before you bake again. I put the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Repeat until you have baked all the cookies.

Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and each stick cut into 8 cubes

2 cups Confectioners'/Powdered Sugar

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Cadbury Mini Eggs

Directions
Beat butter on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy.

Turn mixer speed to low and slowly add powdered sugar until incorporated.

Add vanilla extract and combine until incorporated.

Add frosting in a disposable pastry bag and set aside.

Toasted Coconut
Ingredients
I bag Shredded Coconut (I buy Unsweetened)

Cookies, Cadbury Mini Eggs, Toasted Coconut, and Vanilla Buttercream

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread coconut on baking sheet.

The coconut will toast quickly in about 3-5 minutes. Oven temps vary so start checking the coconut at the three minute mark.

Cool completely before assembling the cookies.

Assembling the Bird's Nest Cookies:
Ingredients
1 bag Mini Chocolate Cadbury Eggs

Assembling the cookies

Directions
Take pastry bag with the vanilla buttercream and for each cookie add the frosting in a circular motion leaving about 1 inch of space around the cookie.

Once you press the mini eggs on the buttercream it will spread out to the edge.

Repeat until you have frosted all the cookies.

For each cookie, sprinkle toasted coconut over the top of the vanilla buttercream and press down so it sticks.

Gently shake off excess coconut, and using different colors press 3 Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Repeat until you are done.

Cover the cookies with plastic wrap and let them set for 2-3 hours in the fridge or overnight.

I used Bob's Red Mill Shredded Coconut, Unsweetened

I was inspired by the design of the Easter Cookies on Preppy Kitchen:
https://preppykitchen.com/easter-cookies/

For the Lemon Citrus cookie recipe please visit, Sweetopia:
http://sweetopia.net/2012/07/when-life-gives-you-lemons-lemon-cookie-recipe-tutorial/

For the Vanilla Buttercream recipe, see my Victoria Sponge Cake recipe:
https://twofrys.blogspot.com/2016/01/victoria-sponge-cake.html

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys