How to Make Beautiful, Easy Sugar Cookies and Our Best Lemon Bars

Byamazingfoodstv


Test cook Dan Souza makes Julia a festive recipe for Easy Holiday Sugar Cookies. Equipment expert Adam Ried reveals his top pick for parchment paper, and gadget critic Lisa McManus reviews silicone baking mats. Test cook Lan Lam then makes Bridget the Best Lemon Bars.

Get the recipe for Easy Holiday Sugar Cookies:
Get the recipe for our Best Lemon Bars:
Buy our winning silicone baking mats:

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42 Comments

  3. I was provided three bags of lemons and decided to make this, and they are right. The bars were full of lemon and the crust was crunchy and tasty. It lived up to the hype. Will make again and again and give out as Christmas treats.

  6. Lan is fabulous but really this recipe is off…it’s too tiny. Lemon bars need volume and height. Citric acid and lemon extract go a long way in creating the punch. I found this too petite and the topping a bit too wet and thin. The sugar cookies are gorgeous and the flooding with Royal icing is always a showstopper.

  8. i always avoid using raw egg whites in icings because who loves throwing up your guts into a toilet that is not fun at all.

    so use instead meringue powder or pasteurized egg whites

    XD i am so risk averse in everything i do

  13. Every time I asked somebody for a lemon bar recipe, they told me to buy a mix like they do.
    Never again.
    Also buy pre-cut rounds of parchment for cake pans, they're nice to have.
    But those for baking sheets will be great.

  14. I love you guys to death, and I have been buying your books and watching your show and subscribing to your website for nearly 25 years now. I don't intend to stop anytime soon. Let there be no doubt how much faith and trust I have invested in all you folks at atk.
    But! I have made your lemon bars, and good as they are, they are not the best out there. The best lemon bars I have ever made or eaten in my life, came from a cookbook published by a baker in boston, the title momentarily escapes me. But these lemon bars are baked in a rectangular baking pan, have a shortbread crust that includes half a pound of butter, and enough lemon curd that you need 14 lemons to get enough juice, and either 10 or 12 egg yolks. The crust is par-baked, during which time the curd is made on the stove top. Then the current is poured over the shortbread crust, and finished in the oven. The layer of lemon curd is nearly as thick as the shortbread layer itself. Perhaps a little more so. The lemon curd includes lemon zest in addition to the lemon juice, plus another stick of butter, and a quarter cup of heavy cream. It is perhaps the most decadent lemon dessert I have ever attempted in my life, and that is saying a great deal, because I have done cheesecakes, and all kinds of other lemon desserts over the years.
    I say this, not to knock down your pride and accomplishment, because it is well deserved. I'm telling you this, because I want you guys to know that it is possible to do even better. I would love to see you folks create something even more over the top than what I have described above. If anybody can do it, you guys can.

  37. Sugar cookie ingredients

    Wet:
    1 lg egg
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    ¾ tsp salt
    ¼ tsp almond extract
    Dry:
    2 ½ c all purpose flour
    ¼ tsp baking powder
    ¼ tsp baking soda
    Plasticized butter:
    1 c granulated sugar, processed into superfine sugar
    16 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut in ½ inch pieces

    Royal icing:
    2 ⅔ c confectioners sugar
    2 lg egg whites
    ½ tsp vanilla extract
    ⅛ tsp salt

  38. The cookies look great! But why do they always insist on baking just 1 sheet at a time? Are their uber expensive Wolf ovens that uneven that they can't make 2 sheets at a time? Or is it because they are electric? I've never had a problem with a gas oven.

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