Lemon Cookies

                        

I was tasked with bringing lemonade to the library Picnic/Barbecue.  I am no longer a full time employee, but they keep me around for emergencies and in the hopes I will bring them occasional treats.  I was not interested in only bringing lemonade.  I thumbed through a few Joanne Fluke mysteries and found a Lemon Cookie recipe in Cream Puff Murder that sounded good.  Unlike most of her recipes it did not make enough for an army, so this was a good amount to take to the library without too many left over for Me!  This recipe made about 5 dozen small cookies.

Lemon Cookies

1 stick of butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup milk

Glaze

1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 sugar


Heat the oven to 350°.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Use a microplane or a zester to zest a whole lemon.  If it is big enough one lemon will get you all the zest and the juice for the cookies.  I used a bit of the kind of lemon juice from a bottle for the glaze to make up for the fact I only had about 1/8 cup left after the cookies.

                     

Add in the lemon juice and zest with the eggs, baking powder, baking soda and salt and blend with the butter.

Mix in half the flour and milk.  Then add the rest in and mix everything up.

Drop by teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Make them small, about the size of a cherry.  Otherwise they will spread out and get too thin and crumbly. 

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.

If you put them on parchment paper it will be easier to remove them to the cooling rack and less messy to spread the glaze.  I used a Silpat.  Then I waited one or two minutes to remove the cookies to the cooling rack.

When you put in the first batch, make the glaze.  I put the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and heated it to dissolve the sugar.  I also used a silicone pastry brush.

As soon as you put the cookies on the cooling rack, brush the glaze over the warm cookies.  My glaze kept getting separated so I would place the pan on the warm cookie sheet and stir to mix it up between batches.  You may want to put some waxed paper under the cooling rack to catch the drips.

The cookies were nice and lemony.  If I had it to do over again, I would zest 2 lemons and then I would have enough fresh lemon juice for the glaze.