Lemon Crinkle Cookies

You know the saying: “When life gives you lemons….”?

Well, I say make Lemon Crinkle Cookies. I’m eating up this “springlike”  60 degree weather here in southern Tennessee, and I feel that this little taste of summer is very apropos.  They’re extremely easy, very tasty, and thoroughly addictive. When I bite into one, I imagine myself sitting on my front porch, rocking in my chair and sipping a cold beer. Actually this song comes to mind:

Every time I hear the refrain I can’t help but sing along. And dance. Spending as much time driving up to the Nashville area as I do, its nigh impossible to develop some kind of appreciation for country music. I’d love to be hitting’ easy street in mud tires right now. 🙂 One of my “before 30” goals is to become proficient in playing the banjo. Me, my sweetheart, my dog, my cat and a banjo on the porch. A barn with a glider on it, a pantry with my canned jams and salsa, acres of Tennessee land with stuff I planted in it, and home cooked dinner. Sounds good, my friends. Sounds good.

Oh yeah, about that recipe? I digress.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cups Butter, softened
1 C. Sugar
1 t. Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
2 T. Lemon Zest
1 T. Fresh Lemon Juice
¼ t. Salt
¼ t. Baking Powder
⅛ t. Baking Soda
1 ½ C. Flour
½ C. Powdered Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and press lightly to flatten slightly and repeat with remaining dough. I used a one inch diameter ice cream scoop.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. I found 10 minutes was perfect. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Makes between 2 and 3 dozen cookies depending on the size.

 

Emjoy!

New Years resolution fortune cookies

It’s  that time of year again! *Cue cliche phrases about new beginnings and bright horizons*.
So, I thought it would be fun to make some cookies. I found this recipe and it was just too cute not to try. Homemade fortune cookies! Only, instead of resolutions, I’m thinking of putting in love messages for my sweetheart. “Resolutions” of things we’d like to do together in the New Year.  The only thing I did differently was I added a few tsps of champagne. Om nom nom. Let me know what you think. My first batch turned out chewy, but the second one was crunchy and juuuust right when I refrigerated them earlier on.

Prep Time: 10 mins Cooking Time: 8 to 10 mins (per batch)

Ingredients
5 tbsp. unsalted butter
4 egg whites
1 c. super fine sugar
1 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
1 pinch salt
3 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Gel food coloring
1 tbsp. multi-colored nonpareil sprinkles

Print out resolutions  or write your own on 3 by ½-inch paper strips. (Food-safe ink is best!) Preheat oven to 400. Prep two baking sheets with Silpat or non-stick cooking spray. Melt butter, set aside to cool. In an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar for one minute. Mix in flour and salt, beat. Mix in butter, heavy cream, and vanilla, beat until smooth. Divide batter into two bowls. Mix multi-colored sprinkles into one batch. Add a drop of food coloring to the other. Place teaspoon-size scoops of batter at least 4 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using the back of the spoon, smooth batter into even rounds about 3 inches in diameter. Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven. Working quickly, slide a spatula under one cookie, lift, and flip over onto a dishtowel. Place one resolution message in the center of the cookie. Fold cookie in half and pinch at the top to form a loose semicircle. Place the folded edge on the rim of a coffee mug and pull each point down, one to the inside of the mug and one to the outside. Place folded cookies in a muffin tin to hold their shape until firm. Crack one open, discuss, devour, repeat. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Note: As with all fortune cookies, it’s important to make them paper thin on a day with low humidity otherwise they will be chewy instead of crisp.

Nutella Pinwheel Cookies

Saw this idea originally from A Busy Nest and I had to try it for myself. Nutella has long been an addiction of mine and this looked too good to pass up.

Ingredients

113g butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Pinch of salt

½ cup of nutella

¼-1/2 of hazelnuts(roasted, skin removed and finley chopped)

Directions

+ Cream butter and sugar

+ Add vanilla and egg

+ add sifted flour, baking powder and salt till dough forms.

+ on a piece of baking paper roll out the dough in a rectangle and cut off excess. (When I made it, the dough was really soft at this point so I put it in the fridge for 5-10mins and it made the next part easier).

+ Spread nutella with a palette knife evenly and sprinkle on nutella.

+ Roll as tight as possible with the baking paper and insure that remains a smooth round shape and doesn’t go square.

+ refrigerate for 2 hours or longer

+Cut with knife into half inch slices and place on tray in a moderate over for around 6 minutes. (To keep the pinwheels from getting a flat bottom roll the dough after each cut.)