Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies (GF)

For those of you who are Pinterest addicts, you might recognize this cookie because it is totally one of those "most pinned" celebrity status recipes. These beautiful glittery lemon sandwich cookies were originally posted in Epicurious and are an obvious choice for holiday cookie baking and entertaining. They look like little sparkling ornaments and are crumbly, light cookies that melt in your mouth.

In order to give these cookies a more refined taste, I used meyer lemons instead of regular lemons, which are sweeter. I also made my own filling, rather than the one provided with the recipe.

For the Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies: (gluten free)
1/3 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup almond meal
2/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, unsalted
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp meyer lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

*Recipe adapted from Epicurious. Non-gluten free readers may replace flour mixture with 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour and 2/3 cup cornstarch, per the original recipe.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Choose sanding sugars of your choice and pour liberal amount of each color into separate small, deep bowls. Sift together flours, starches, xanthan gum, and salt. Set aside. Cream together butter and powdered sugar. Add lemon zest, juice, and vanilla extract. Using hand or stand mixer on low setting, slowly add flour mixture.

Measure out scant teaspoons of dough and shape into balls. Drop balls one at a time into sanding sugar, tossing and turning to coat completely. One baking sheet is full, place in freezer for 5-10 minutes (chilling the dough helps the cookies keep their cute shape in the oven). Bake cookies for 10-13 minutes.

For the Meyer Lemon Filling:

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, unsalted
2 tbsp whole milk or cream
1/2 vanilla bean or 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
2-3 tbsp meyer lemon juice (depending on tanginess preference)

Combine all ingredients in bowl of stand mixer and beat with paddle attachment until fully combined and creamy.

To assemble, use a heavy duty freezer bag (snip the corner off with scissors) or a pastry bag to pipe a small amount of filling on one side of each cookie. Sandwich together.