Soft, subtle lemon flavor in a thick, delicious cookie – perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. Lavadores Cookies also known as Washboard Cookies are a wonderful Portuguese Dessert Recipe.
When it was announced that this week’s theme was Portuguese food, I figured I’d just sit this one out – I don’t know anything about Portuguese Cooking.
Except I missed last weeks too, and I didn’t want to miss out.
The solution was to go hunting out a simple Portuguese recipe I could make and that would be easy enough that mini-chef could help.
You see, she cooks almost everything with me, so it had to be simple enough for her to follow and make.
She’s 14, I’m blessed, that opens up a lot of recipes.
Her task I gave her… Google Portuguese recipes until you find something that will work. She sat there for about an hour looking at different recipes, I’d hear her shuffling around in the kitchen occasionally.
When she finally chose Lavadores Cookies, I asked her why those. Her answer was simple and assuredly very sweet – “Mom, they are lemon, and I love lemon and besides, you have all the ingredients already and we don’t have to go to the store to buy anything.”
I love this child. She amazes me when she thinks about things like that.
So we set out to make our Lavadores Cookies and they were absolutely delicious – the right amount of tart lemon from the zest, a thicker cookie that is absolutely heavenly with a cup of tea in the evening or a cup of coffee in the morning.
Don’t judge me, sometimes I eat cookies for breakfast… so what?
Are you ready to make your own Lavadores Cookies?
Lavadores Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cups butter room temp
- 1 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 4 eggs
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoons baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoons salt
- ¼ cups sugar for rolling the cookies in before baking
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Using your mixer, cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar for about a minute or so, or until creamy and light. Crack the eggs in one at a time, beating well in between each one. You’re done when your batter is light and fluffy and is sort of a pale yellow. Took me about 2 1/2 minutes. Mix in the lemon zest.
- In a separate bowl, wisk together the flour, salt and the baking powder.
- Using a big spoon, fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture and mix well.
- Knead the dough in the bowl for about 5 minutes.
- I did use my Kitchen Aid for this using the dough attachment on the lowest setting.
- Using a pan, sprinkle the 1/4 cup of sugar on the pan.
- Shape the dough into balls that are about one and a half inches.
- Roll each bowl in the sugar until completely coated and place on a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet about an inch to two inches apart.
- Use a fork to gently flatten the balls with the fork tines creating lines in the dough.
- This is where the washboard name comes from.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a lightly golden color.
- You can wait for them to cool, but they are amazing warm. Serve with a glass of milk, cup of tea or steaming mug of coffee. Delish!
Nutrition
The original recipe was found on www.portuguesecooking.com
Nicole, these look gorgeous! And they’re lemon.
And “brad” away. Your daughter is absolutely stunning! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much Jen, I was a bit startled to get those photos back from my mom. She looks so grown up with the make up. I’m not sure how much I love that. haha Good thing we only allowed it for this photo shoot 😉
And the cookies were so delicious, I’ve enjoyed them with my coffee several times since we made them. yum! Have a great week!
Looks yummy!
I don’t see the amount of lemon says listed in the ingredient list. Could you tell me how much to put in? They sound so delicious!
I am not sure how that ingredient got cut off, it was the zest from one lemon, or 1 tablespoon lemon zest. I have corrected the recipe! Hope you enjoy them!