This is a recipe that will fit your needs:
https://www.bakedbyrachel.com/soft-and-chewy-lemon-sugar-cookies/
This recipe makes a very soft-and-chewy-lemon-sugar-cookie I have made my own modifications to the recipe that results in a lighter, more cake-like texture that melt in your mouth, but is firm enough to carry a good glaze, or frosting on top. This recipe is tried and true. Another party asked me to create a recipe for a lemon cookie that was very soft and tender. She reported back to me that the recipe was the best she'd had. Made my head swell a bit
This is the same recipe, but with my modifications:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup soft, unsalted butter'
1 /14 cups granulated sugar
zest of lemon
1 large egg
2 tbs. lemon juice
/13 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbs. water
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar (cram them). Add the egg and mix in thoroughly. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, Vanilla extract, salt, and water. Adc the two cups of flour..
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Gently fold all ingredients together. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop 1 heaping tbs. of cookie dough onto the paper. Fill the pan with cookie dough, placing the cookies an inch apart. Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. REmove from the oven and lift the parchment paper with cookies onto a cooling rack.
The baking powder acts as a leavening agent, and together with the glute, developed from adding the water to the dough, makes the cookies rise into a delicate, soft cookies.
You can make the same changes to the famous Nestle Toll House recipe. Change the baking soda to baking powder, and add just a couple of tbs. water to the recipe. If you overcook these cookies, they will have the texture of a good shortbread. So so be careful with timing.
If you omit the lemon, and replace the flavors with vanilla, butrer, and brown sugar (Toll House Cppkies?) you get butterscotch. Add butterscotch chops, chopped pecans, and cripsy bacon bits for a cookie that gets rave reviews. But don't take my word for it. Try the recipe and see how it turns out. The recipes can easily be doubled, or even tripled to make enough cookies for a crowd. Hope this helps.
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
