Polenta

Italian Polenta Cookies

by:
October 23, 2011
4
2 Ratings
Italian Polenta Cookies
  • Makes 2 dozen
Author Notes

The first time I saw the original recipe in Martha Stewart's "Living" magazine, I knew I had to make them. Polenta! Lemon! I've tweaked the recipe a wee bit because I love lemon so much and have friends who say they don't really like lemon, but love these cookies. —Katey501

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 cup Italian polenta or coarse cornmeal
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together polenta, flour, and salt in a bowl.
  2. Cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest until pale and fluffy. Add egg and egg yolk, one at a time, mixing well after each is added. Mix in vanilla and lemon extracts.
  3. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Transfer batter to a pastry bag with a star tip attachment. [I use Wilton's 1M, Martha suggests Ateco's #825.]
  4. Pipe cookies into 'S' shapes about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies until edges are golden, about 15-18 minutes, rotating sheet about half-way through baking time. [Martha suggests chilling the dough in the freezer 30 minutes prior to baking. I tend to skip this step.]
  5. Transfer cookies on parchment to cooling rack and let cool for about 10 minutes.
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4 Reviews

morgan
morgan March 8, 2022
I just used lemon juice as a don't have extract. Ended up with a lemon and a half of juice, batter was good, still firm enough to hold its shape, but easy to work with, also added a couple sprigs of thyme. Not sweet enough for my sweet tooth and would add a lemon or honey drizzle over the top next time.
 
ljtosti
ljtosti December 17, 2021
This cookie was delicious, however I had to abandon the piping method. The dough was too stiff and broke a hole through the bag. I ended up rolling the dough into balls, then I flattened the cookie and used kitchen shears to cut slits around the dough and they kind of look like flowers.
Wondering if I could have added milk or something to thin out the dough. Also I noticed other comments about the lemon extract. I did what someone suggested, 1/4 tsp and it came out very tasty.
 
Margaret E.
Margaret E. August 18, 2019
In the recipe for Italian Polenta cookies, you don’t give the amount of lemon extract, only vanilla extract!
 
rose E.
rose E. December 9, 2019
Yes to Margaret's post! How much lemon extract??