Lemon Ginger Cookies

...think snickerdoodles, with an attitude.

Continuing on this week with some lemon and gingery things, these cookies were delicious, exceeding all expectations. Slightly chewy golden brown edges... light puffy centers... and a subtle tangyness of lemon and ginger that almost made my tongue tingle. Mmmm, yes! The first dozen disappeared quickly as my favorite taste tester helped me assess the results. We both awarded top honors with two thumbs up.

The recipe should have tipped me off that these little puffs were close to the classic snickerdoodle cookie, but I don't remember ever eating one. Nope, not ever; snickerdoodles were not present in my childhood. I've heard of them since, but never sought them out. A traditional snickerdoodle relies on cream of tartar for additional lift and lightness, and typically calls for chilling the dough before baking for maximum height and minimum spread. I might adjust my approach for the next batch, or not. These little cuties were winners as is.

Random thought: where did that strange name come from? "Snickerdoodle;" it sounds like it might have a Deutsch history... schnecken and knodel? Mmmm, no, not when a schnecken is a snail or rolled bun. I'll stick with calling them Lemon Ginger Cookies.

Lemon Ginger Cookies

adapted from a recipe in Cookie Classics Made Easy

makes approx 4 dozen

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 355 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with a silicone baking pad or parchment paper. Have wire baking racks available. Use a small bowl and mix the optional topping to roll each cookie before baking.

1 TBS ground ginger

1 TBS lemon powder

1 TBS granulated sugar

Step 2. Use a stand mixer, combine the following and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary:

1 cup (2 sticks) softened, unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

2 TBS Greek yogurt (not low fat) 

2 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp ground ginger

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 TBS lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

Step 3. Add and mix thoroughly to incorporate:

3 cups all-purpose flour

Step 4. Scoop out 1-inch balls of the dough and roll between your fingers to shape and firm. Optional step: roll each dough ball in the flavored sugar topping mix listed in Step 1. Place on cookie sheet with an inch or two between cookies.

Step 5. Bake for approx 15 minutes in preheated 355 F oven until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let sit undisturbed for a few minutes. Move to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in a covered container.

Note: Unnecessary but tasty finish: drizzle cooled cookies with thin ribbons of a loose 3:1 or 4:1 mix of powdered sugar and lemon juice. 

Brownie Crackle Cookies

What could possibly be better than an ooey, gooey, fudgey, still-warm, double chocolate brownie? Mmmmm, not much since this chocolate lover finds brownies nearly irresistible, BUT a whole brownie can be too much of a good thing. Finishing a brownie calls for commitment. Ta da! Brownie Crackle Cookies to the rescue, for those moments when just one bite will suffice. Not as densely chocolatey as a fudgey brownie, these cookies still scored a two-thumbs up rating from my chief taste tester.

The recipe comes from a box of Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Brownie mix, the blend with chocolate chips already in the package. My pantry always holds a box or two of brownie mix for emergencies (don't judge). I added a handful of chopped walnuts to this batch for a bit of crunch, an optional addition we enjoyed enough to repeat. 

Yesterday's not-so-much "emergency" was more a matter of timing, I needed a simple but delicious snack in a hurry. These cookies were just that - simple to mix and delicious to eat. A box mix designed for 16 brownies instead produced 3 dozen cookies, enough to serve afternoon guests and still have some left for the cookie jar. Win, win!

Brownie Crackle Cookies

yields approx 2-1/2 to 3 dozen cookies

1 box Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix

1 cup flour

3 eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup walnut pieces, chopped (optional)

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

Stir together the brownie mix and flour in a medium bowl. Add the eggs and oil; stir until blended. Add the nuts and stir to mix.

Measure the powdered sugar into a small bowl.

Use two tablespoons or a small cookie scoop to form tablespoon-sized balls of dough. Roll each ball gently in powdered sugar to coat completely. Place the sugar-coated balls about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake 11-13 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies with a Lemon Glaze

When life gives you lemons... bake cookies! Once again girlfriend Tanya gifted me with a bagful of gigantic lemons from her tree in Yuma. Besides smelling divine, these juicy monsters yield oodles of zest - perfume with a purpose.  

Ooooh, the possibilities; lemon cookies, lemon cakes, lemon sauces, Hollandaise of course, fresh lemon zest in everything... No contest! Let's celebrate Spring-almost-Summer with a batch of lemon cookies. 

RL was out of town and I never rarely bake cookies just for myself, so this first, experimental batch was purposed as a thank you treat for a medical office crew I've visited lately. An upbeat, supportive group of professionals, I expect them to sample with enthusiasm and provide honest feedback on taste and texture.

Lemon sugar cookies, dropped not rolled, sounded sunny and flavorful but I turned to some online resources to fine tune the recipe.  A Cooking: NYTimes post for Basic Sugar Cookies did cover the basics, but I wanted more flavor "pop" to highlight the essential lemonyness.

Lemon Sunshine Cookies at Serious Eats made claims to "melting away on your tongue into a burst of lemon". Yeah, that's more like it, and a dip in a lemon glaze upped the sweetness factor. This recipe had possibilities, but I kept searching.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies at Two Peas & Their Pod added poppy seeds, just because, and that sold me. Who doesn't love Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins?! (My Costco Copycat version is a winner around here.) link

One of Tanya's Arizona lemons, plus a couple of tablespoons of poppy seeds, transformed ordinary sugar cookies into soft, sweet, lemony bites of sunshine. Thanks to Maria and Josh for posting the recipe. Now I can't wait for the taste test feedback. I will update soon.

6/5/2017 update: the cookies were a major hit with the clinic staff (plus a few incidental other folks who heard there was food in the break room). Two dozen Glazed Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies and three dozen Cruising Cookies tied for "favorite cookie" honors. I consider that a baking success.

Glazed Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

from a recipe at Two Peas and Their Pod
yield: 24-30 cookies

• COOKIES:
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 heaping tablespoons lemon zest
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

GLAZE:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 4-5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to line 2 insulated cookie sheets. Set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Whisk and set aside.

In another small bowl, blend together the sugar and lemon zest.

Use an electric mixer, stand mixer or handheld, and beat the softened butter and lemon zest/sugar mixture together at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, lemon juice, vanilla and lemon extract; mix until smooth.

Add the dry ingredient mixture; use low speed and beat until just combined. Stir in the poppy seeds by hand. Drop walnut-sized blobs of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, placing them roughly 2-inches apart.

Bake until the cookies are just set and the edges are golden brown; approx. 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool cookies on baking sheet for 2 minutes. Then remove to baking racks to cool completely. (Don't glaze until the cookies have cooled!)

For the glaze: whisk powdered sugar and 2/3 of the lemon juice together in a medium bowl. Whisk together to remove lumps, adding remaining lemon juice as necessary to achieve desired glaze consistency. Dip each cookie top into the glaze; return to baking rack, glaze side up, and let rest until the glaze sets up. (You will have extra glaze - get creative with the leftovers.)

Coconut Macaroons

...an easy, tasty cookie from only 5 ingredients.

I had a mad craving for something sweet, just one small bite, and I wanted it right now! No, a piece of fruit wouldn't do, neither would cinnamon toast. Dark chocolate baking chips didn't appeal and the freezer held no ice cream. Dang! there was a serious shortage of tempting sweets in my kitchen. Emergency averted - Coconut Macaroons to the rescue. Note: not the fancy, fussy meringue-based European macarons made with almond flour, egg whites, and sugars, then filled with buttercream, ganache or fruit curd. No way!  These macaroons were the sticky mounds of coconut and condensed milk; Mom's midwestern version with crisp, browned exterior and a soft, chewy centers. Macaroons, not macarons.

My holiday cookie enthusiasm left extra packages of shredded coconut and cans of sweetened condensed milk in the pantry. I'm not wildly fond of coconut desserts, so it's easy to forget about macaroons. Suddenly, these cookies seemed perfect - it was a semi-emergency.  Fast and easy to prepare, those unfussy mounds of coconut were the perfect solution to my sudden sweet tooth craving. RL loves macaroons, so none were wasted after I enjoyed one or two... or maybe three.

Occasionally I dip the flat bottoms in melted chocolate, or drizzle zigzags of melted dark chocolate across the tops. Chocolate dresses up the appearance, even tempting coconut-averse chocolate lovers to try a coconut macaroon. This time I baked a half-batch and skipped the chocolate dipping or drizzles. The cookies lasted several days, their exteriors initially crisp but growing soft and chewy after a stay in the cookie jar. No complaints were registered with the cook, however.

Easy Coconut Macaroons

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

5 cups shredded coconut (sweetened, moist, Bakers brand)

1/4 tsp salt

1 small can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp almond extract (or substitute vanilla extract)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a cookie sheet, or cover with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

2. Mix flour, coconut and salt together in a bowl. Add condensed milk and vanilla; stir well by hand to make a thick batter.

3. Use a cookie or ice-cream scoop to form cookies; place on baking sheet, allowing an inch or two of space between cookies. Bake for 15-20 minutes*, or until just golden brown. Remove from pan at once, and cool on baking racks.

*Baking time will vary with size and height of scooped cookie and with different ovens. The boat oven bakes small versions of these cookies in 12-15 minutes. 

Butter Pecan Cookies

There is a new favorite cookie in my galley. Yes, it's shocking but true, Cruising Cookies dropped to "also-ran" status last week as we consumed batch after batch of Toasted-Pecan Butter Cookies. Granted, they were small batches of small two-bite treats, but that's still a lot of cookies. 

How good were these soft yet crunchy, buttery baked goods? Guests enjoyed them, even those on diets, and one of the boatyard mechanics asked for the recipe. It is hard to resist a cookie that combines the rich, buttery flavor of shortbread and butter cookies topped with a sprinkle of sugar. 

Soft, really soft butter was the key to ease of forming the little dough balls. They firmed up nicely as I rolled each scoop of dough between my palms, and flattened without crumbling. Dough balls using a colder butter stick resisted compression and were harder to work with. Ahhh, the range between early morning "room temperature" and late afternoon "room temperature" made such a difference! 

Try a batch and see if these nutty cookies become your favorites. Betcha can't eat just one!

Toased-Pecan Butter Cookies

a la Martha Stewart

Yields 1 1/2 - 2 dozen

• 3/4 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature or softer but not melted

  1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a baking sheet, toast pecans until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool completely and finely chop. 
• Use an electric mixer to cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until light, about 1 minute. Beat in the remaining ingredients  (vanilla, almond extract if using, salt, and flour), scraping down sides of bowl, just until dough comes together. Fold in pecans. 
• Use a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon to gather small balls of dough; roll and pack into compact balls. Roll in sugar and place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Gently press with the bottom of a glass to flatten slightly; reshape the sides as necessary. Sprinkle with sugar. 
• Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.  Rotate the cookie sheets halfway through the baking. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with more sugar (optional) and let cool 5-10 minutes on cookie sheet. Remove cookies from baking sheets and let cool completely on a wire rack.(They crumble and break apart if you eat them immediately - ask me how I know!)

Orange Madeleines

What's not to love about a madeleine? Soft and buttery, light and moist, these airy little cakes are a blissful bite of magic. Can you tell that I'm a fan? Yes, a fan, but a very recent fan.

I sampled my first-ever madeleine last month, at home in my own kitchen. Some unremembered online post, or maybe a Pinterest pin or two, caught my fancy and prompted an Amazon purchase of nonstick madeleine pans. I've always thought of madeleines as fussy, intimidating cookies; difficult to master, even a bit daunting to attempt. Hey, they're French! Company in the kitchen would make the activity fun no matter what the results, so Hilary joined me for the baking adventure.   

We used the recipe that came on the pan's cardboard wrapper, but incorporated some tips from a Mark Bittman post. We rested the batter for an hour and chilled the pans and the batter, but ignored Bittman's caution to avoid overbeating the batter. Did it make a difference? Who knows, but our results were judged a 5-star delicious success by all taste testers. 

How could I have ignored these iconic French treats for so long? Sweet, but not too sweet. Crisp edges surrounded soft interiors. The citrus flavor was subtle but evident. These delicious little scallop-shaped cakes have shot to the top of my Favorite Sweets list, though we can't wait to try some other flavor combinations as well. Almond, lemon, lavender... What's your favorite madeleine?

Orange Madeleines

(recipe from Chicago madeleine pan package)

Yield: 24 Madeleines

2/3    cup flour

1/4    teaspoon baking powder

1/2    cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

2       large eggs, room temperature

1/2    teaspoon orange extract

1/2    heaping teaspoon grated orange peel
1 cup powdered sugar

Topping: sifted powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray the madeleine molds with  baking spray. (I used Pam+flour spray.) Hold in the fridge until ready to fill.

Sift together flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat eggs, orange extract and orange zest on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in powdered sugar; beat another 5 minutes or until thick.

Gently fold in flour mixture, then melted butter. Mix until smooth. Chill in the fridge for an hour.

Spoon or pipe the mixture into the cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake approximately 8 minutes, or until edges are light brown. Be careful not to overtake.

Cool in the pan around 1-2 minutes. Tap on the counter to loosen the cookies, or loosen with a knife, then invert pan on a rack. When cool, sprinkle the tops with powdered sugar.