2 August, 2015

Luscious Lemon Cookies

Comments : 4 Posted in : baking, cookies, food, foodie, funny, humor, recipe, Uncategorized on August 2, 2015 by : Jeanette Rueb

It’s no secret, as I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I have a major sweet tooth. These cookies are the perfect snack for someone like me: they’re sweet, citrusy, soft, chewy, soooooo not health food, and they’ve got that sinfully-rich mouth feel, which is odd for a lemon cookie, but wonderful, nonetheless.

The best part is that, other than maybe the lemon, you’ve probably got all the ingredients you need to make these cookies already in your pantry. Depending on how you view baked good binges, that could be a wonderful realization or a terrifying one (it’s a wonderful one, just trust me). What makes this recipe even better is that it’s super easy (except maybe the zesting part, but we’ll get to that).

Just to prove to you how easy these cookies are to make, I will tell you that I made them while practically half asleep and aching from head to toe (walking around hot streets with camera equipment slung over your shoulders for nine hours straight does a number on your body, apparently). Even still, the apartment remained standing and uncharred, my kitchen is still intact, and I now have a batch of AMAZING lemon cookies to enjoy — Yay!

Ready to make some yourself? Of course you are. That’s why you read my blog, to occasionally chuckle at either my funny writing style or the stupid ways in which I screw up simple tasks and/or to find really good recipes. What ever your reasoning, read on and you’ll be satisfied.


Here’s what you’ll need:
For the cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
2¼ cups flour

For the lemon glaze:
1½ cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon milk

¼ teaspoon vanilla

Between the cookies and the glaze, one large lemon should provide enough juice and zest to get the job done. However, you’ll have to zest the entire lemon, like this one:

Oh, and, um, word to the wise:
When using a grater to zest a lemon, keep your knuckles out of the way. I zested my thumb twice during the process. As if grating the skin off of my finger wasn’t painful enough, the fresh cut was immediately coated with lemon juice. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Other than NOT adding little fillets o’ finger to the pile of lemon zest, here’s how to make the cookies.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Because I do this by hand, I always melt my butter first. It saves me a lot of trouble, and the cookies always turn out just fine.

Once the butter and sugar are combined, add the egg, followed by the lemon juice, zest (finger bits optional), and vanilla and mix well. After that is mixed, add the salt, baking powder, and flour to the mix (I recommend adding the flour half a cup at a time, plus the 1/4 cup at the end). Combine until everything is evenly blended.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (a tablespoon works as a good scoop) and place them about an inch apart on a lined cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the bottom edges of the cookies are golden-brown.

While the cookies are baking, combine the glaze ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. You might want to add a little more milk to the mixture, as it’s really thick. I didn’t add any extra because I wasn’t sure how much I would need (too tired to eyeball it), and I really didn’t want to mess it up and have to zest another lemon (I was running out of knuckle).

Once you get the glaze to the desired consistency, drizzle it over the partially-cooled cookies (if you don’t add more liquid to the mix, I would recommend using a spoon for this) and let it cool before stacking them in a storage container.