Use room temperature butter, but chilled eggs.

Cream butter and sugar together for about two minutes - it will turn lighter and become fluffy.

Add in the eggs one at a time. Add in the extract next. Let it mix all together until it's a uniform consistency, and scrape the sides if you need to.

Mix in the crystalized lemon and the poppy seeds.

Add in half a cup of flour at a time to the wet. Stop when the dough starts to comes away from the sides of the bowl. You may have half a cup of flour left at this point, and that’s ok. If the dough doesn’t do this, add more flour, a bit at a time, until it does. That’s also ok.

Lightly flour a surface and "Slap knead" the dough just enough to make it smooth. Put it into an airtight container and refrigerate it for at least three hours. It can stay in your fridge for a couple of days, and you and can also freeze it for several months.

​Preheat the oven to 390 F, or 380 if you have a convection oven. 

Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch and cut out shapes. Lay them at least ½ inch apart on cookie sheets. Parchment paper or silicone mats are recommended.

Bake one dozen cookies for 7 to 8 minutes, or two dozen for 10 to 11 minutes. The cookies should lose their shiny tops and have just a touch of brown around the edges. Let them cool on the tray for five minutes, then move to a wire cooling rack.