Another spin off from my lemon cookies...
Here’s another delicious way to enjoy lemon cookies this Spring, if it EVER gets here. We’ve been battling snow storms, gale winds and droves of cold rain all spring here in Wisconsin. It’s especially “fun” when the rain freezes overnight to create a 3” layer of ice under the 10” of snow. It's tough on the snowblower and hard on the back.
Well, enough with complaining! When the weather gets nasty it’s time to stoke up the woodstove (or turn the oven on) and bake cookies, bread, cakes to share with others. No, I don’t cook on a woodstove, but it does conjure up cozy memories of baking at each of my Gram’s homes. The kitchen was the coziest place to be, with that woodstove crackling away. We would make cupcakes, cakes and even breads. Both of my Grams were the best!
And, that brings up the lemon cookies that I’ve featured here. Gram never had white chips to add to her lemon cookies, just lemon zest. And I’ve been told that mine could copycat the Lemon Drop Cookies at Panera Bread. The only difference is that I make them smaller so little hands can handle them easier. And instead of frosting them as I’ve done with my cream cheese frosting, I place a couple of Ghirardelli melting candies on top of the warm baked cookies, let them melt, and add a few Cadbury mini eggs on top. Voila! Some bright yellow lemon cookies with crisp chocolate mini eggs on top. What a treat!
This recipe makes 3-4 dozen cookies.
Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.
Prep your pan:
Line 3-4 of your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Gather your Ingredients:
3 C Flour
1 t Baking soda
¾ t Salt
1 C Butter, soft
2 Eggs
2 T Lemon juice, fresh
2 t Lemon zest, freshly grated
1 t Vanilla extract
1 1/2 C White chips, top quality
¼ C Powdered sugar (for dusting)
Stir up the Lemon Cookies:
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs until combined.
- Add half of the flour mixture into the butter and sugar mixture. Beat at medium speed until combined. (Adding some of the flour at this point will keep the lemon juice from curdling the butter and sugar combo.)
- Add the fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Beat in at medium speed until combined. (If you feel you want a stronger lemon flavor, add more zest. Make sure you only get the zest, not the white pith under the yellow skin. The zest has the best lemon flavor while the pith can add a very bitter flavor to foods.)
- Blend in the rest of the flour mixture with a spatula. Don’t overmix.
- Stir in the white chips until combined. Don’t overmix.
- Scoop balls of dough onto the parchment paper lined cookie baking sheets. I use my 2-tablespoon scoop to make them all consistent in size. If you make them larger, you’ll want to adjust the baking time.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are just a light golden brown. I check the cookies at the 8-minute mark and rotate the pans 180 degrees in my oven so they bake evenly. (I only bake one pan at a time in each of my ovens. If you bake two pans at a time in one oven, you’ll want to rotate them up and down so they bake evenly.)
- As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, place 2-3 Ghirardelli melting candies on top and wait a few minutes for them to melt.
- Place 2-3 Cadbury mini eggs on top of the melted chocolate. The melted chocolate makes a nice little basket like presentation on top of the lemon cookie.
- Cool for 2-3 minutes on the pan.
- Take off the pan and set on cooling racks for 15 minutes.
Options:
- These are fun cookies to make with the kids. Try some different candies for the top. Jelly beans, candy bar pieces, sugared lemon slices, other flavors of fruit slices. The sky is the limit!
- Be sure to include the candy melts to help your candies stay on the cookies.
- Try a different frosting on top, maybe a nice fudgy chocolate frosting.
- For an extra tart lemon cookie, add a small scoop of lemon curd on top of the warm cookies. Mm mm.
These are very tasty and colorful cookies. The lemon cookies with the chocolate and pastels of the mini eggs make for a beautiful combination of flavors and colors. Enjoy making and sharing them to “Bake your own Memories!”