Lemony Goodness

Do you want a simple, delicious, quick cookie? Ok great! Here's the perfect recipe for you:). I made these cookies per Stephs request and I'm really glad I did (Thank you Steph:)). They have the perfect amount of lemon flavor, are nice and chewy and it's pretty impossible to eat just one!

The original recipe calls for either agave nectar or honey. I happen to have a very large bottle of agave nectar from the last time it was on sale at Wegmans, so I used that. I still have some lemons left over so I may make a batch some time this week and use honey to see if there's much of a difference in taste. Also, half way through making these I realized with without the addition of eggs, these cookies are vegetarian (do vegetarians not eat eggs?) and could easily be made vegan with the substitution for the butter. More importantly it means you can safely eat all the unbaked dough you'd like! 

Chewy Lemon Snowdrops

You will need:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
• zest of 2 lemons
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup agave nectar or honey
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• about 1 cup powdered sugar, for coating

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk together flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle, cream together butter, lemon zest, sugar and agave nectar (or honey). Mix until very smooth, about 3 minutes. Make sure to scrap down sides.

In a small cup combine the lemon juice and the baking soda. With the mixer on low, add in the flour mixture and the lemon mixture. Scrape down the sides and mix by hand to ensure that all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Roll the dough into balls, 1 inch in diameter.

Make sure to spray your hand with a little bit of cooking oil so the dough doesn't stick too much. I baked the 2 sheets separately, 13 minutes each.

Let cool on baking sheets for 5-10 minutes and transfer to rack. The original recipe has you toss them in a bowl of powdered sugar but I opted to sift the sugar over top of the cookies. Simply because they are still pretty soft at this point and I didn't want any breaking apart in my hands and...cause they look prettier this way:).

Now pour a glass of milk and devour these cookies!

Source: sophistimom

When Life Gives You Lemons

Make Lemony Slice-and-Bake Cookies!

I'm not going to lie, I was a wee bit nervous when I made the dough for these cookies last night. It seemed so dry with only 4 egg yolks and 1 tsp of vanilla as the only liquids. I sort of set myself up for failure, only to be pleasantly surprised when they turned out well this morning!

I used to get reeeally angry when I would mess something up in the kitchen. Like, fuming mad and wanting to strangle something angry. I think this blog has helped me in that area. I've had the opportunity to try a lot of new and different recipes and have experienced a lot more successes and a few more failures. I think I'm becoming a little more....well rounded in the kitchen, and more low key about the results.

Lemony Slice-and-Bake Cookies


You will need:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 4 large egg yolks

For the icing:

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• food coloring (optional)
• sanding sugar (optional)

Whisk flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla in a large bowl, occasionally scraping down the sides, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolks; beat just to blend. Reduce speed to low; add the flour mixture and beat, occasionally scraping down the sides, just to blend. 

Divide dough in half; roll each half into a 10"-long log about 1 3/4" in diameter on a lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 1 hour. Do Ahead: Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.

Arrange racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap 1 dough log. Using a sharp knife, cut log into 1/4"-thick rounds. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, 1" apart.

Bake until cookies are firm and golden brown around the edges, 16-18 minutes. I baked for 9 minutes, rotated the sheets, and baked for 9 more. Let cool for 1 minute, then transfer to wire racks and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough log. Makes about 50 cookies.

To make the icing, whisk sugar and 2 tbsp lemon juice in a small bowl. Add coloring, if desired. Spread or drizzle the icing over cookies. Decorate as desired. Let stand until icing sets, about 10 minutes.

I spread the icing, but I think next time I would drizzle it. It has a very strong lemon flavor, and is a bit tart, which is good but too much can be over powering. The cookies are also delicious by themselves warm, right out of the oven!

Source : Bon Appetit magazine

Everybody Loves A Cookie Exchange!

A friend of mine hosted a cookie exchange this past weekend. There were 10 or 11 of us, 5 dozen cookies each, about 140 cookies in total. Daaangerous! ( I lost 2 lbs last week, ask me if I gained them back? Go ahead, ask, I dare you). It was so much fun though :). The variety of cookies was great- just to name a few: Italian chocolate cookies, fruit pillow cookies, chocolate mint crinkles, ginger cookies, Mexican wedding cookies and on and on.

My cookies were a bit of an adventure, and almost a complete failure! I was close to tears on the Friday before the party, thinking I was going to go to Wegmans and buy 5 dozen cookies. Thankfully I gave it another shot on Saturday (day of the party) and found my error. A 1/2 cup of butter is ONE stick NOT two. I don't know what I was thinking? I ended up with 40 useless, cranberry orange shortbread cookies. It was a definite face-palm moment, which ended with a lot of flour on my face...

Needless to say, once I realized my mistake and made two more batches using only 1 stick of butter each, they came out great, super tasty and smelled soooo good.


Cranberry Orange Biscotti


You will need:

• 1/2 cup butter, unsalted and softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp orange zest
• 2 tbsp orange liqueur
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1  1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1  1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 3/4 cup almonds, toasted and finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in the orange zest and liqueur. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and stir into creamed mixture until combined. Stir in almonds and cranberries.

Lightly flour your surface and hands and form your batter into a disk. Cut it in half and set one half aside. 

Roll each half into a log about 1 1/2 inches wide and 10 inches long. Set the rolls lengthwise on a baking sheet with parchment paper at least 3 inches apart, and flatten slightly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm to the touch and slightly brown on top. Cool for 10-15 minutes, the transfer to cutting board and slice each log crosswise, at a diagonal, into 1/2 inch wide slices.

Lay them cut side down on baking sheet and return to oven for an additional 10 minutes, turn them over and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks and dip or drizzle with chocolate if desired.

Enjoy!

Source: allrecipes.com

"C" Is For Cookie

I made these cookies a couple of weeks ago for a get together. There's something you should know about these cookies, they are the first thing I have ever made that were intentionally vegan. Woah! Crazy, I know. It really wasn't hard at all, I just had to sub margarine in for butter. I think it's the simplest vegan cookie recipe on the face of the earth actually.

I didn't mind the flavor but I think it would take me awhile to get used to the taste of margarine and I think I'd always miss butter and have a special little place in my heart for it.

I don't know if people really liked them ha! But when we left the plate only had 2 left, where there had been 20 or so. So if that's any indication then I guess they went over pretty well :).

Pecan Butter Balls


(The name is a bit misleading, wouldn't you say? Pecan margarine balls doesn't sound quite as appetizing though)

You will need:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup confectioners sugar for decoration

Put cubed margarine, flour, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl and combine until the dough has come together. Place on a flat surface and kneed in pecans. Form the dough into a disk, using additional flour if needed. 

Cut in half and roll into 2 logs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours, or overnight. Afterwards, take it out and cut into 3/4" pieces and roll into balls. Place onto 2 baking sheets, covered in parchment paper. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned and firm to the touch.

When they are cooled, roll them in confectioners sugar and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If I made these again I would add some cinnamon and nutmeg, to give them a little more flavor and to mask the margarine taste, for those who aren't used to it.

Source: yummly.com

Recipe Swap: Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

This was my first time participating in the recipe swap, put together by Sarah at A Taste of Home Cooking. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous. Both about how my submission would be received and about what recipe I would receive. I submitted the oatmeal cookies I did a couple posts ago, and got these chocolate gingerbread cookies from Cathy at Cathy's Kitchen Journey.

So, without further ado...

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies


You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp flour
• 1 1/4 tsp ground ginger (I actually did 1/4 tsp by accident, but it didn't leave them lacking any flavor)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tbsp unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder (I used Hershey's cocoa powder...it's what I had, sorry!)
• 1 stick butter at room temperature
• 1/2-1 tbsp freshly grated peeled ginger
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1.2 cup unsulfered molasses
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp boiling water
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips ( I used mini)
• 2 tbsp sugar, for rolling

In a bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In your mixer, using the paddle atachment, beat butter and grated ginger for 4 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar to combine well, then beat in molasses.

Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well.

Combine baking soda with boiling water. Beat into batter. Add the remaining flour to the batter and beat to combine. Mix in chocolate chips.

Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray two cookies with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.

Using cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll them into sugar and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake  for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven, rotating half way through, until surface begins to crack. -My cookies were on the large side and ended up taking about 15 minutes.- Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature.

Makes about 2 -2 1/2 dozen.

This is actually my breakfast this morning as I type this post:).

These cookies are a great spicy treat! They have a nice kick from the ginger, cloves and molasses, and a gooey sweetness from the chocolate chips. Matt and I both enjoyed a couple right out of the oven Mmmm:).

A big thanks to Sarah for arranging the swap and Cathy for the delicious cookie recipe!

Source: Cathy's Kitchen Journey, adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

Bon Appetit!

This months Bon Appetit magazine is full of cookies to die for. One of my favorite being Meringue Cookies! I made a batch, according to their recipe, although I did half peppermint and half plain.

Peppermint Meringues


You will need:

• 3 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp peppermint extract
• red food coloring

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt until white and foamy, about 1 minute on high. With mixer running, add the sugar in three additions, beating for 2 minutes in between each addition. Beat until firm peaks form, about 2-3 minutes longer. Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract and beat to blend. (I held off on adding the peppermint extract in order to do half of them plain.)

Spoon meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch tip. Twist top; pipe 1 inch rounds onto prepared baking sheet.

Once I did half of the meringue, I then added the peppermint extract (a little less then1/8 tsp) and blended it. I took a clean paint brush and painted stripes up the sides of a new pastry bag. If you don't want to do this you can just put a couple drops of coloring into the bowl and swirl it, but not blend.

Fill the bag with the remaining meringue and continue piping your 1 inch rounds onto the baking sheet. Makes about 60. Bake meringues until dry, about 2 1/2 hours. Let cool completely, about 1 hour (meringues will crisp as they cool).

They can be made 2 days ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

These cookies are great for a sweet, low calorie and fat free treat! You don't have to feel to bad about eating one, and then 6 more:).

Perfect Oatmeal Cookies

I've been craving oatmeal cookies lately. I think they are the perfect cookie for when you want something sweet, but not overkill. A cookie that you don't have to feel to guilty about indulging in:). A hearty, homey, good old fashion oatmeal cookie!

I think these are a great cookie to make with kids. There's minimal mess, a few simple ingredients and you can let them get their hands into it a little bit (washed of course!!).

Martha Stewart came to the rescue with a good recipe that I tweaked a little, just to make them a bit more interesting.

Oatmeal Cookies

You will need:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil 
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1/2 cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1/4 cup craisins
• 1/4 cup golden raisins

Makes about 12-15 cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl combine the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside. In a large bowl combine the oil, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir to combine.

Mix in the craisin, raisins and oats until they are fully incorporated.

Using about 2 tbsp of dough per cookie, roll into balls; place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 1  1/2 inches apart. It helps if you put a little cooking spray onto your hands before you roll the dough, that way it won't stick all over your hands. Bake until lightly browned, 15-17 minutes, spinning the sheet half way through. Cool 5 minutes on sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

You'll know how good they will taste by how amazing your house will smell:)

 And then you'll eat them and your suspicion of their tastiness will be confirmed.

Source: Martha Stewart