Easy Lemon Cookies

  • Easy Lemon Cookies

    The inspiration for these cookies actually came from a recipe called “Egg Yolk Cookies”, which really sounds quite disgusting, doesn’t it?

    Here’s the scoop.  I had 4 egg yolks waiting around to be beaten into something other than a pudding (I totally would have made a pudding or even better- creme brûlée– if I had milk or cream in the fridge.  I could have made pudding with the almond milk we use for everyday life, but I wasn’t in the mood to compromise the texture of what pudding should be, which is soft and rich- something that 2% or homo [or cream- even better!] has to offer.  Almond milk rocks in cereal, but not so much in a pudding.).

    So with 4 orphaned egg yolks in the fridge, I knocked on the interweb’s door and found a crapload of recipe ideas.  I didn’t want to make a cake.  Nope, I had cookies in mind.  And I had a slew of lemons leftover from New Year’s Eve (why did we think we needed like 6+ lemons for 4 people to garnish drinks?), also burning a hole in the fridge.  The plan was coming together.

    The Husband says that these cookies remind him of these pyramid-shaped Portuguese cookies he used to have from a bakery or a friend’s house when he was a kid.  I have no idea what he’s talking about.  He’s not Portuguese, so I don’t know if he knows what he’s talking about either.  But he did say he really liked the Portuguese cookies, which means that these cookies were deemed a success (instead of a Disaster, which they were clearly on the cusp of becoming… check out the way the special lemon sugar I got at Whole Foods ended up baking itself into what looks like freckles in the photo above.  I’ll just tell the lucky gang I serve these to that it was intentional, if they have the nerve to ask.).

    These cookies have a bit of a fluffy, cake texture, and are fast and easy to make.  Now I know what to do with extra egg yolks in the future, when real milk isn’t around to tempting me into making Rich Chocolate Pudding, that is.

    Adapted from food.com’s recipe…

    1 cup butter

    1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1/2 cup for rolling dough balls in

    6 egg yolks

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

    1 teaspoon lemon zest

    2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1 teaspoon baking soda

    1 teaspoon cream of tartar

    course lemon sugar (optional, for rolling dough balls in)

    1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy (about 3 – 5 minutes).
    2. Add egg yolks and extracts to butter/sugar mixture and beat for a minute, scraping sides of bowl.  Mix in lemon zest.
    3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and cream of tartar).  Add to wet mixture and mix until well blended.  Chill dough while oven preheats (at least 15 minutes).
    4. Preheat oven to 350° and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
    5. Scoop and roll cookies into 1″ balls, and roll them in sugar (you can use a combo of regular sugar and lemon sugar, or just regular sugar).  Place about 2″ apart on baking sheets.
    6. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, depending on desired softness/crispness.

    Tips:

    • If you don’t have 6 egg yolks you can use 3 whole eggs, but just know that the taste and texture will be a bit different.
    • Allow dough to chill either before you scoop or after- just make sure the dough balls aren’t being baked while they go into the oven warm… or else they’ll bake into flat pancake-cookies.  (Yummy lemony pancake-cookies, but still.)
    • Want orange instead of lemon?  Go for it- replace the extract and zest with lemon.  Or grapefruit??  Yeah, do it.
    • Enjoy!

     

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    January 26th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: ,

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