December 4: Gingerbread Men

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It’s just not Christmas without Gingerbread men.  (And as a writer, I can’t decide if I need to capitalize Gingerbread each time. Gingerbread. gingerbread. Eh. I’ll consult the AP guide later.)

I have a normal gingerbread recipe that’s been good to me over the years, but I realized I was out of cloves, and didn’t want to go out to get any. A few Google searches later, I found a recipe for Gingerbread men that did not have clove in it. 

After creaming and mixing and chilling, I pulled my dough out and rolled it.  No matter how careful I am, my dough always ends up looking like an Eastern European county when it’s all rolled out. 

And then, of course, the cats wanted to watch. I kept shooing them off, but they kept coming back. Zelda, the gray and beige Tortie, even tried to steal some dough. Once I threw her some on the floor, she left me alone. So my cat likes Gingerbread. Okay then. 

I cut them out and baked them and then it happened: Royal Icing Trauma. My friend Manda is a cookie baker too, but much more professional, and I asked her about her royal icing recipe. I made it, and tried to decorate my gingerbread people. 

They did not turn out well at first. 

This was so not Manda’s fault. I texted her some pictures and she told me that royal icing is something you need to thin. Once I did, they turned out much better. 

I had a lot of fun decorating these. Besides the traditional gingerbread man and woman, I made a skeleton, a queen, a Hawaiian girl, two reindeer, and some beach bums. For someone that never enjoyed coloring (it still stresses me out), this surprised me. 

The Perfect Gingerbread Cookie

(from Sweetapolita.com)

Ingredients

  • 6 1/2 cups (815 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon ground ginger 
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon allspice 
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cups (283 g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup (220 g) light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup (220 g) cooking molasses
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. In large bowl, sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  2. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping sides of bowl between additions. Add molasses and vanilla and beat until completely incorporated.
  3. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Dough should be soft (not dry or crumbly) but not sticky. If sticky, add a few tablespoons of flour until desired consistency is achieved.
  4. Divide the dough in 2, place each half on a large piece of plastic wrap, press down with the palm of your hand and make a disc about 2″ thick. Finish wrapping the disc with the plastic wrap. Chill the discs of dough for at least 2 hours.
  5. Remove one disc and remove plastic wrap. Place on top of a large piece of lightly floured parchment or wax paper (I use a silicone rolling mat underneath to ensure it doesn’t slip while rolling, but you can even dampen counter so the parchment sticks a bit.), then place two 1/4″ wooden dowels on either side of your dough, then another sheet of parchment paper.
  6. Roll dough (this will require a bit of elbow grease for the first few minutes until it softens up a bit) so it’s flush with dowels–they will ensure that your dough is even thickness.
  7. Slide your parchment paper and dough onto a board, then place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or freezer for 15 minutes (or more).
  8. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line two or three baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment. Remove the rolled dough from fridge, and cut your shapes using the cutters or template of choice, placing them on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the edges just start to brown, about 8 minutes for medium cookies, and 10 minutes for larger cookies (such as those in the photos).Be careful not to over-bake, or cookies will be dry. Collect remaining dough and re-roll once, repeating cutting and baking steps. Dough rolled out more than once will be a little tough, so it’s best to keep it to a 2-time roll-out maximum. 
  9. Cool sheets on wire racks for 20 minutes, then gently remove cookies and place on wire racks to finish cooling. If cookies are too fragile, you can cool completely on trays.
  10. Decorate with royal icing, candies, sprinkles, and more.

December 3: Lime Meltaways

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So I’m trying a new recipe every-other day. Today we have Lime Meltaways, courtesy of Queen Martha Stewart herself. I started looking for a different Martha cookie recipe, but stumbled upon this one. I like different cookies, and when I saw lime, I was intrigued. And, as luck would have it, I had some limes leftover from Thanksgiving. 

What? You don’t bring tequila shots and lime to *your* family Thanksgiving?

(Just kidding. It was for an avocado egg roll appetizer I brought, but the tequila shots isn’t a half-bad idea.)

It’s a lime-ocide!

Aside from the limes, there isn’t really anything too odd in this recipe. Though I still don’t understand how beating butter and sugar “until pale and fluffy” (as Martha says to do) is an actual instruction. Butter is yellow and powdered sugar is white. Unless you are doing something very wrong, it’s always going to turn out pale and fluffy. 

I added all the lime juice and zest, as well as vanilla, and it looked a little weird, to be honest. I didn’t take a picture of it, but I hoped it would come together. And it did, once the corn starch, flour, and salt were incorporated. 

Not quite round, but it still tastes the same.

Marty (what I’m sure her close, personal friends call her) instructs her fandom to wrap the dough in specially-measured parchment paper, and to use a ruler at every turn. I’m my own woman and eyeballed it, and it looked fine. Into the fridge it went. 

After a few hours, I pulled it out and sliced it up. From the oven came little lime coins that I rolled in powdered sugar very carefully (and while they were still hot.)

It’s so weird to have a lime Christmas cookie, but I’m all about this. It’s got a little zing to it while it melts in your mouth. Okay, Marty. You did okay with one. That’s why she’s the queen.

Lime Meltaways 

(from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar 
  • Finely grated zest of 2 limes 
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 
  • 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch 
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions:

  1.  Put butter and 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add lime zest and juice and vanilla, and mix until fluffy. 
  2. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. Add to butter mixture, and mix on low speed until just combined. 
  3. Divide dough in half. Place each half on an 8-by-12-inch sheet of parchment paper. Roll in parchment to form a log 1 1/4 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Refrigerate logs until cold and firm, at least 1 hour. 
  4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove parchment from logs; cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Space rounds 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, toss cookies with remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a resealable plastic bag. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 weeks.
Little bits of lime-y goodness.

December 2: Swedish Butter Cookies

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Today I made this wonderful recipe from my friend Michele, that she shared with me a few years ago. I have a lot of work to catch up on today, so I needed something that wouldn’t take a lot of time. Swedish butter cookies are pretty quick while also being impressive. When I put the cherry on each one, my daughter saw them and said, “Oh yeah! I love these kind!”

The dough is a standard butter, sugar, vanilla base, with an egg yolk instead of the whole egg. The egg white is kept for later, when it needs to be whipped. Once the flour and half-and-half is incorporated, it should make a ball in the mixer. For me, that generally means it all congregates on my paddle attachment and brings the top of the mixer down with a big thud. 

I whipped the egg white in a tiny little bowl with one whisk attachment of my hand mixer. I also chopped a 1/2 cup of pecans with my old Pampered Chef chopper. I ended up needing more, because I wasn’t being stingy with the pecans. 

I like to dry the maraschino cherries a bit, so the juice from it doesn’t stain the cookie. I also like to swat the little girl that keeps stealing maraschino cherry halves from my bowl when I’m not looking. You dip a dough ball in the egg white, and then the pecans, and put it on a cookie sheet. When the tray is full, put half of a maraschino cherry in the middle of each cookie, pressing down slightly.

Into a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes they go. Keep an eye on these. A few years ago, I burnt a batch of these because I got distracted by a cool looking spider that I wanted to take a picture of. I got the picture of the spider, but at the expense of a tray of cookies. It was a sad day. 

I love these cookies, and they look so pretty with the cherry in the middle. Truth be told, I love maraschino cherries, and I always think about the episode of How I Met Your Mother where Marshall has a coworker that does all this crazy stuff, including eating a jar of maraschino cherries for money. I never understood that, because I’d totally do it for free. And maybe actually have. 

Swedish Butter Cookies(

(courtesy of the fabulous Miss Michele!)

  • ½ lb. butter or margarine (2 sticks)
  • 1 t. vanilla
  • 2 c. flour
  • ½ c. sugar
  • 1 egg yolk (save whites to whip)
  • 1 T. half & half (I always use milk)
  • ½ t. baking powder
  • ½ c. chopped pecans
  • 1 bottle maraschino cherries

Cream butter, add sugar; add egg yolk then vanilla and mix well.  Next, add the flour with the baking powder mixed in.  Alternate adding the flour with the half & half.  Form dough into little balls the size of a walnut.  Whip egg whites stiff.  Dip dough balls into whipped egg white and roll in pecans.  Place a half of a cherry in the center and push it down lightly.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 15-20 min. in a 350 degree oven.  Watch them so they don’t over brown.  Yum, yum, yum!

December 1: Hamantaschen

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See, I promised you some new recipes. 

Whenever I do the December cookies, I’m always a tad jealous of families with rich cultural backgrounds who have some recipe or tradition that goes back to the old country, and it just isn’t Christmas without whatever it is.

My family, while cool and crazy (putting the “fun” in dysfunction), is about as cultural as a bag of microwave popcorn. Both of my parents are the youngest (or almost…my mom is the 8th of 9 kids) in their families. Three out of four of my grandparents were the youngest in their families. One of my grandfathers was born in 1888. (Seriously.) I do genealogy as a hobby, and I can tell you that my family has been in America a long, long time. Any cultural traditions from Ireland, England, Hungary, or Germany have long been lost. 

However, I do know that I’m 50% Ashkenazi Jew genetically from my dad’s family. My grandfather converted in the 40s, and again, there’s no cultural influences from that side of the family either. Years ago when my beloved Aunt Barbara died, we went to her celebration of life and I met my Jewish relatives–cousins of my dad and aunt. And they were loud, talkative, bubbly, and tad strong-willed–just like me. I was like, “Where have you been all my life?!” Since then, I’ve been curious about this part of my heritage. When we moved this summer, we happen to settle in a part of the Chicago suburbs with a high Jewish population, and my kids are learning way more about our heritage than I ever have. (My daughter even went to a Bat Mitzvah a couple weeks ago, and holy cow, that party was bigger than my wedding!)

Making Hamantaschen today is my way of celebrating this part of my cultural heritage. Yes, I get the irony that I’m making a traditional Jewish cookie as the first day of my Christmas cookie baking. Life is full of these sort of juxtapositions. 

Dear Kitchenaid, I will be your loyal follower forever.

The recipe for the dough was pretty simple. A stick of butter and some sugar, creamed together until creamy, and then an egg, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. 

Also, let’s take a moment to admire my new Kitchenaid bowl. I’ve been wanting another one for a few years, and finally decided to invest in one. Let’s not admire the mess around it. I made a batch of royal icing for other cookies and haven’t cleaned up the powdered sugar quite yet. 

The lemon zest made this dough really pop. I actually zested way more than the 1 teaspoon needed and put the rest in a prep bowl for later use. 

What the dough looks like all mixed together with the extra flour.

After I put the rest of the ingredients in, I put it in the fridge to chill. The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of flour, but I ended up with 1 3/4 cups because with the 1 1/4, it looked like cake batter. 

After being the fridge for about an hour, I took it out and rolled it. I also had to put Zelda (one of our cats) away because she kept trying to steal some dough. I don’t really blame her, as this dough is pretty amazing. 

12 cut-out cookies, reading for filling. 

The recipe calls for using a round cookie cutter, and I don’t have one. I used a drinking glass instead, and I think it turned out okay, if not a little large. More on that later. 

I only got about a dozen cookies, which should have tipped me off that I made them a tad too big. Hamantaschen are traditionally filled with poppy seed filling, which I bought. I also bought almond filling (my favorite), and I also tried a sweet canned pitted dark cherry and some fresh blueberry buttercream that I made for another recipe. 

I filled the centers with about a teaspoon of filling and folded the dough around it. Traditionally, Hamantaschen is shaped like a tri-corner hat. I had to look up how to fold them, and I still didn’t get it quite right, but I don’t think it was too bad of an attempt.

Into a 400 degree oven they went for 10 minutes. The blueberry buttercream ones didn’t turn out, which I really didn’t think they would. But the rest seemed to. They ended up really big, so if I make these again, I will definitely make my circles smaller. 

Poppyseed Hamantaschen, cooling on a rack.

This recipe is from The Nosher. 

Hamantaschen Cookies

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup butter (or margarine)
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 T milk (or almond milk)
  • 1 tsp grated lemon zest
  • 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt

Directions

Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add egg, milk, vanilla and lemon zest until mixed thoroughly.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry mixture to wet mixture until incorporated.

Note: if the dough is too soft, increase flour amount by ½ cupfuls until firm.

Chill dough for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

Dust surface with powdered sugar to keep from sticking. Roll the dough to about ¼ inch thick.

Using a round cookie cutter, cut out and place onto cookie sheet. To keep the dough from sticking to your cutter, dip in powdered sugar before each cut!

Fill each round with your favorite filling, and using your favorite method, pinch corners together tightly.

Bake at 400° for about 7-9 minutes.

Welcome to December 2018!

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So we’ve made it to the end of this crazy year. A lot has changed for me this year–I have graduated from grad school (with TWO masters degrees), packed up the kids and cats and moved 1000 miles to the suburbs of Chicago, and somehow found a job in my field. 

When people ask me what I do for fun, I have to think. I’ve been so used to not having time for hobbies, that I’m lost when this question is asked. However, I realized that this is what I do for fun. I bake cookies. I look for complicated or classic recipes. I collect sprinkles. (Seriously. I think I have a problem.) 

I have been doing this crazy 24 days of cookies thing officially since 2004. I started posting my recipes on Facebook in 2008, and created this website in 2012. I’ve gone through a lot of sugar, a lot of butter, and a lot of my sanity. 

So welcome to this leg of my yearly journey. This year, I’m going to do something different and have at least 50% new recipes. Please tell me what you think, and if you’re following along with me. I love to hear from all of you!

December 4, 2017 — Soft and Chewy Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I’m in the throws of finishing a beast of a paper, so instead of telling you how I made something, I’m just going to post a few pictures and the recipe. It’s that sort of week around here.

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The Best Soft & Chewy Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies (from thedomesticrebel.com)

Ingredients
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract (I like to use Madagascar Bourbon)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, brown sugar & white sugar with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and egg to combine. Lastly, beat in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and pinch of salt until a soft dough has formed. Stir in the cranberries and white chips by hand.
  2. Refrigerate the cookie dough for AT LEAST 1 HOUR. You can chill it overnight if you’d like, but one hour chill time is mandatory to prevent cookies from spreading and to create that light, soft and chewy texture.
  3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with silicone liners or mist lightly with cooking spray. Remove chilled dough from fridge and roll into Tablespoon-sized balls. Place onto the cookie sheets about 1-2″ apart from one another.
  4. Bake for approx. 8-10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time to ensure an even cook. Cookies may appear slightly undone, but do not over-bake them! They will continue to set up more as they cool. Allow cookies to set on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes or so before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. If you’d like to make them prettier, garnish cookies with additional white chips on top of still-warm cookies before serving.

December 3, 2017–Cherry Divinity

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In every cookie blogger’s life, a little sugar must fall. Or in my case, Cherry Divinity.

I’ve never made this before, but I had some marshmallow fluff leftover from the night before (it’s a long story) and google was there for me this morning with the answer to “Christmas Cookie with Marshmallow Fluff.”

Enter Cherry Divinity.

I supposed Divinity is more a candy than a cookie, but I make allowances for butter mints and toffee, so Divinity is given a pass.

The recipe seemed simple enough, though there was a glaring typo that I was ready to pounce on. Joke’s on me though, because this one didn’t quite turn out the way it should have.

I did everything right up until the 10 minutes of mixing, when I left to go write some of my research paper. When I returned, the substance in the mixer looked a little grainy. But I thought maybe it would be okay.

It wasn’t really.

Divinity isn’t supposed to look like this. I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, but this is SUPER sweet. However, my kids have been snacking on it all day long, which tells me maybe there’s a market for this treat. I’m just not it.

And Dixie Sugar, it’s “loses” not “looses,” but after my experience, it’s clear that maybe I’m the loser on this one.

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Cherry Divinity (from Dixie Sugar)

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

  1. Line countertop with wax paper.
  2. Place marshmallow fluff in stand mixer bowl and attach the paddle attachment. Set aside.
  3. In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, combine sugar and water whisking constantly. Bring to a boil and let boil for 3 minutes.
  4. Remove from heat and slowly pour sugar mixture into the marshmallow fluff with the mixer on medium.
  5. Bring the speed up to medium-high and beat until the mixture thickens and looses it’s glossy sheen (and looks more matte), about 10 minutes.
  6. As soon as it’s the right texture, stir in vanilla and candied cherries. Working quickly, drop the divinity onto parchment paper using two large spoons: one spoon to scoop it and one spoon to push the candy off the other. Place a cherry onto the top of each piece of divinity.
  7. Allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

December 2, 2017–Snickerdoodles

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Today is Aaron Rodgers’ birthday. Now, I’m not a big football fan, but many of my friends are, which is how I know today is Aaron Rodgers’ birthday. I lived in Wisconsin for 14 years, home of the Packers, and when I think of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, I think of my friend Nichole, who is from Wisconsin. And when I think if Nichole, I think of Snickerdoodles, her favorite cookie.

a rod

This one’s for you, Nichole.

(Like how I went from December 2nd to Snickerdoodles? I’m smarter than your average bear.)

So Aaron, Pack, Wisconsin, and Colie, this cookie is for you.

I made this cookie years ago (at Nichole’s house, actually) and it was Trisha Yearwood’s recipe. Today, when I wanted a Christmas-fied up version of a snickerdoodle, Trisha’s recipe again popped up…in someone else’s blog. I guess Mrs. Garth Brooks isn’t just a country singer given her own Food Network show because of her name…she is actually pretty legit!

Now, the recipe calls for sifting together the dry ingredients. Because it’s only December 2nd, I did it. But had I waited until like December 16th to make this cookie, it would be just a regular measure-and-dump. I hope the recipient of these cookies enjoy the extra effort taken.

I mixed it all up and went hunting for my colored sugars. Thankfully, I always seem to have those in abundant supply. And because it’s Christmas, I stuck with the traditional red and green…no black or lavender today!

Now when I moved into my new place earlier this year, I ordered some new bowls from Amazon. They were white! They were cheap! They came in a pack of six! And…when I got them…they were super tiny. Not what I needed for morning cereal. Thankfully, my laziness in returning them meant they were still in my cabinet, and ready to fulfill their destiny.

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Seriously, the tiniest ceramic bowls you’ve ever seen.

Because I love you all and want to make a good impression right now, I put them on my cookie sheet in alternating order. So pretty, but truth be told, after I snapped this picture, it was every colored-cookie for themselves. I don’t have time to prettify my cookie sheets.

In and out of the 400 degree oven, and my house smelled like Christmas.

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Trisha Yearwood’s Snickerdoodles

(from http://www.foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients

1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 medium eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar and the eggs and mix thoroughly with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy and well combined, 1 to 2 minutes. Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt, and stir into the shortening mixture.

In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar (*I used colored sugar) with the cinnamon.

Shape the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls (1 tablespoon per ball), and roll each ball in the cinnamon-sugar. Arrange the dough balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake two sheets at a time until the edges of the cookies are set but the centers are still soft, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Transfer the cookies to wire racks for cooling. Repeat with the remaining dough balls. Store in an airtight container.

December 1, 2017–Italian Sand Cookies

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Whoa, is it that time of year again? My tree is up, Elf is on prime time, and I have a pile of final exams to grade. Yup, it must be December!

It was a little up-in-the-air whether or not I’d do this, and in the spirit of openness, the way I was feeling in December, I didn’t know if I could ever get in the Christmas Spirit again. But I’ve prevailed against the doldrums, and here I am.

I’m starting the season off with one of my favorites–Italian Sand Cookies. I got this recipe a few years ago off the internet and they are always a crowd-pleaser.

Tonight, as I was starting to bake, I couldn’t find cornstarch. So, despite my best efforts, I was not prepared, and back to the store I went. Sigh.

Mixed it all together and piped it on a cookie sheet (I also didn’t have parchment paper, which I discovered after I got home from the store for the second time today. I was not about to return for a third.)

Now, when I lived in Wisconsin and made these, the piping came through a lot better.

See?

Now, I don’t know why it is that these have spread out so much the past few years, but my inclination is that it has something to do with humidity and general Louisiana-ness. (50th in everything, except humidity.) If you happen to know the real reason, please let me know.

To celebrate my first day (night?) of holiday baking, I picked up a little something at Albertsons when I went for corn starch.

No, not the cat. That’s Zelda, and she’s a new addition. I’m talking about the glass of Prosecco, also a new addition of sorts.

When they were cooled, I melted some milk chocolate with a little coconut oil and dipped them, and then added the mandatory sprinkles.

My best friend once caught a glimpse of all the sprinkles on my shelf via FaceTime and made me count them for her. There were 20 different kinds. This was a few years ago, and the collection has indeed grown. I don’t have a problem; I can stop any time I want!

Welcome to December friends. Now would anyone like to write a 20 page paper for me this weekend?

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SAND COOKIES

(from www.cheftessbakeresse.com)

1 1/2 cups flour (we used AP)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar *
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 eggs
*(we also liked 3/4 c. conf sugar & 1/4 c. granulated which made them a slight bit sweeter)

Creaming method. Put through bag with large star tip. Bake @ 375 F for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown. Decorate with choc chips, sprinkles or leave plain and dip half in melted choc., etc.

Soft Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

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When I think of the flavors I love, the top two are lemon and caramel. (What, you don’t sit around and think what two flavors you would want if you could only have two flavors for the rest of your life? Yeah…me either…) And since I live in the south now, sometimes I am blessed with a bag of lemons straight from someone’s tree. img_0028

(You can grow LEMONS and other citrus fruit down here! It still blows my Northern Girl mind!)

Mini- Me’s friend’s grandma gave us a bag of lemons and satsumas before Thanksgiving, and I thought there had to be a recipe out there for a deliciously lemon cookie.

I found one on Pinterest and went to work. Though as tasted the dough, I realized that it was not lemony enough for my liking. And then this Northern Girl realized that the lemons that grow down here are Meyer Lemons, and not as sour as your everyday lemons. Oh well.

To try and rectify my sourpuss sensibilities, when it came time to make the lemon icing, I improvised a little. Instead of just powdered sugar and water, as the recipe calls for, I tried to make a sour lemon icing with the juice from the Meyer Lemons and sugar, boiled and reduced in a pot, and then added to powdered sugar.

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The result? Lemony icing, but still not sour enough. Oh well. They still taste good to the non-lemon flavor purists out there, and that’s a success in my book.

 

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Soft Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

(from Swankyrecipes.com)

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons lemon zest
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 1/2 – 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Icing (as they wrote it, not my 24daysofcookies.com variation)

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons water
  • 3/4 cup to 1 cup powdered sugar

Combine butter and cream cheese in a bowl fit with a paddle attachment of a mixer. Cream together for about 1 minute. Add granulated sugar and continue to mix. Add egg and vanilla extract and continue to beat on medium to high speed until light and fluffy, about 5-7 minutes. Add half the flour, all the baking soda, salt, cornstarch and lemon zest. Add lemon juice and the remaining flour. Mix to combine until the dough starts to form like a ball. Add a little more flour until slight ball starts to form. Cover and refrigerate dough at least 2-3 hours or up to a few days.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking sheet and spray with cooking spray or parchment paper. Using a cookie scoop, scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie dough. Roll cookie dough between hands to get a nice round ball and place on prepared cookie sheet.Bake for 8-10 minutes, removed from oven and while still hot, slightly press down if desired. Allow cookies to cool down completely before transferring. Cookies will slightly harden overnight a little more so don’t bake them much longer.

To make the glaze, combine powdered sugar and water together in a small bowl. Whisk fast until ingredients are combined with no lumps. Dip cookies upside down into icing or drizzle icing over the top and allow to harden.