This is a wonderful lemon flavored cookie.  The dough keeps it's shape really well so your cookie cutters will work great!  Use smaller cookie cutters as this is a pretty rich cookie.

Lemon Butter Cookies

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, beaten lightly
Grated peel from 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and lemon peel until just combined.

In a bowl, sift together the flour and the salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, a little at a time, and beat until combined well.

Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic, and chill for 2 hours.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. (I like these cut into smaller cookies)

Transfer to ungreased baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. Let cool for 5 minutes on the sheets and transfer to racks to cool completely.

Lemon Icing

In a bowl, whisk together 2 cups confectioners' sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and a few drops of yellow food coloring until smooth. Spread on cookies and let dry until set.

Yield: 20 large or 40 small cookies

This is a Lemon Butter Cookie with Lemon Icing and yellow sparkling sugar.

Hint:  Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough 
and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.  Roll it out to the desired 
thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator.  
Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all.  
By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut.  
Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process!  An added bonus is that you are not 
adding any additional flour to your cookies.