Cookies!

 

 Most you of you might remember my cookie-recipe quest. I want to make different cookies for Easter/Spring celebrations and send out cookie baskets. I want bright, happy, Spring-type cookies, like lemon, orange, and lime. Those are completely different from the requests I'm getting--eggnog, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and pumpkin cookies. My son threw in his request for blueberry cookies. *blinks* Apparently, he's eaten a couple recently and adores them. 

I always thought of eggnog and pumpkin cookies more for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, while chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin as ordinary all-year round cookies. May be I'm old-fashioned? May be I'm totally out of sync with the times? 

Anyway, I decided to save myself a lot of grief, I needed to try these recipes before making them for the cookie baskets. I figured, knowing my luck, that if they weren't that great, I'd rather know now than when I'm trying to get a bunch of different cookies made come Easter/Spring time. This gives me plenty of time to decide whether a recipe is a keeper or not and whether or not to include it in the baskets. I figured I'd save myself some grief later, right?

So here's my first trial batch: Lemon Butter Cookies

A Special Note: These cookies need to age a couple of days for the lemon to come bursting out. This makes it perfect for sending cookies through the mail!

Lemon Butter Cookies

Early Prep: Grate the peel of 5 lemons and save the zest. Juice two lemons. You will need 2 1/2 -3  TBSP of lemon zest and 1/4 cup of lemon juice.  

Add 1/2- 1 TBSP of lemon zest to 1/2 cup of white sugar and mix well. Set aside. 

3 cups of unenriched/unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of kosher salt
Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside. 

1 cup white sugar
3/4 cups butter, at room temperature
1 large egg 

Cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy with electric beaters/mixer. I used the wire whip on the Kitchen-Aid, and beat at medium speed until it was mixed. Then I increased the speed for about a minute, which made the butter and sugar mix light and very fluffy. 

Add the egg--minus the shell. :D Always wanted to say that! And mix into the butter-sugar mix until thoroughly mixed and still fluffy. Add lemon juice and 2 TBSP of lemon zest into the mix. Beat until thoroughly mixed.  

Add dry ingredients and mix well. Mixture will be crumbly.  Divide dough in half, place each half on a sheet of waxed paper. Shape in to logs about 2-3 inches in diameter. Wrap well in waxed paper and refrigerate for at least an hour. After dough is completely chilled, unwrap and slice it into 1/4-1/2 inch slices. Place slices on ungreased cookie sheets. Dough will spread--so leave plenty of room between slices. Crowding will not work with this recipe. 

Sprinkle lemon sugar on cookie slices. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. The edges should be golden brown. Cool for about 2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheets to a wire rack. Let the cookies age for a couple of days before serving in an airtight container.  

Yesterday, I realized that I was going to have to re-evaluate my life just a bit more. It seems like I'm constantly "re-evaluating my life just a bit" these days. It seems getting up before sunrise is not going to happen the mornings after I teach at night. I can't do it. As much as I love getting up that early, watching the sun rise out of the night's darkness to light up my world, I'm going to have to reserve that habit for the other days. 

Yesterday, I was so exhausted and couldn't seem to get my mind and my body energized to work on housework. I figured I'd better get a head start on next year's holiday gifts, but that didn't happen either.  Instead, I read a few chapters of the novel my husband got me for Christmas. It's a sci-fi fantasy by Patrick Rothfuss called "The Name of the Wind." I've been reading it chapter by chapter instead of in one or two sittings as usual. It's very good and I'm glad I'm taking my time through this book. Yesterday was a good day to read. 

Then I decided I needed to do something else for me. So I looked through my beads and settled on one or two sets that I've had and began.

 

 This is going to be one of my favorites, I can tell already. If Terri had more of these, I'd snatch them up and make one of those long necklaces to go with it. 

 I've had these beads for a long time. It was time they quit sitting in the case, looking pretty. It was time they did what they were created to do--become a part of a jewelry ensemble.  

The other thing I did yesterday was scope out cookie recipes. I decided I wanted to send out Easter/Spring cookies this year. You know what that means---I have to test them out before I bake them up. I'm looking at lemon cookies, lime cookies, and orange cookies. I found a great recipe for making thin mint cookies--not that I could eat them, of course, but I can make them for the choco-holics in my life. :D 

I also have been bombarded with requests for more of my German Chocolate cakes that I baked for a few lucky recipients over the holidays. I'm rather surprised since all I did was follow the recipe on the box of German Chocolate. So I'm looking for a good German Chocolate cookie recipe that doesn't involve a boxed cake mix. If you have one, I'd be grateful!