Ingredients
Scale
- 1 c butter (unsalted)
- 1 c granulated sugar
- ½ c light brown sugar (lightly packed)
- 2 eggs
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon zest (the zest of about 3 lemons)
- 3 c all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ¼ c white chocolate chips (mostly the entire contents of a 10 oz bag; reserve some for the tops. If you don't want to add chips to the tops, adding the entire bag of chips is fine!)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Prepare baking trays with parchment paper.
- In a large microwavable bowl, microwave the butter on 100% power for about 40-45 seconds until partially melted (the two sticks of butter should mostly still be there, but very soft with some melted butter in the bowl).
- Using a hand mixer, add sugars and beat on medium for about 1 minute until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and vanilla; beat on medium-high for 2 minutes.
- Add the lemon zest and combine.
- In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt using a whisk.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low speed until all the flour is absorbed.
- Add in the white chocolate chips and incorporate by hand.
- Using a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the parchment lined trays, leaving a few inches in between each cookie.
- Take the white chocolate chips from from the 'reserves' and press them lightly into the tops of each cookie. I used about 4-5 chips per cookie.
- Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. I found that these cookies baked up quite fast so be sure to keep an eye on them. They are easy to over bake!
- Once they are done baking, allow them to cool on the tray for about 5 minutes. Move to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for 4-5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Recipe by Owlbbaking.com
If your cookies brown too quickly, try lowering the temperature by 10-20 degrees.
Lemon Zest Tips
- When you're shopping for lemons to zest, choose deep yellow, ripe lemons. I find these have the best flavor for zesting.
- Wash the fruit before zesting. Because you're using the outside rind, you want to be sure that you've rinsed the lemons well under cold water.
- Prep your space by laying down a piece of parchment paper. I always zest onto parchment because it makes it easy to create a funnel and dump the zest into the dough. Plus, since zest is oily it can stick to a cutting board and by using the parchment, you get every last bit of glorious zest.
- Use a sharp microplane, be careful and watch out for your fingers.
- Apply light pressure to the microplane when you're zesting. You only want to zest the colored part of the rind, not the white pith underneath as it can be bitter.