A friend of mine recently told me that she doesn’t enjoy chocolate. Just never had a taste for it.
Heresy.
How can we be friends?!?!
*Deep breath*
Given the large number of sweets that I enjoy, most, if not all, with some sort of chocolate component, I think it’s pretty well known that I’m a chocoholic. But I can drag myself out of my obsession to recognize that the dark chocolate mistress that tends to rule my life may not hold such sway over others.
And so, I dedicate this post to those who have not the taste, nor drive, to make all sweet contain a touch of chocolate. Specifically KL. This one’s for you, friend – legit tastes like lemonade!
Lemonade Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Sheet
- parchment paper or silicon mat
Ingredients
- 175 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 142 g caster sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp Kosher salt
- 265 g all-purpose flour
Icing
- 115 g confectioners' sugar
- 35 g lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest grated
Instructions
- Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks, vanilla, and salt, then beat to combine. Gradually add the flour, mixing until incorporated.
- Divide dough in half, and shape into 1¼-inch diameter logs. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate until firm, about 60 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Slice logs into ¼-inch-thick slices, and place on cookie sheets lined with either parchment paper or silicon mats, keeping them 1½ inches apart. Bake until lightly golden, 15-20 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, and juice until it comes together as a thick, but pourable glaze (adding more lemon juice if necessary). Dip the top of each cookie into the glaze, then let set for about 15 minutes.
Notes
So here’s what happened: At least three years ago, I was munching away on a Girl Scouts cookie that I knew I really shouldn’t be eating, and shocker, it wasn’t a Thin Mint. It was a Lemonade – the shortbread cookie in the shape of the Girl Scouts logo with icing on the bottom. I’d just realized how much I liked them, and true to form, ate way too many.
During that time, I had a habit of browsing Pinterest, and found the Peppermint Hot Chocolate Fudge Cookie recipe. In the process, I found a cookie that had a lemon glaze, and threw it into one of my saved pins for later – you know, for those people in my life that weren’t as fond of chocolate as me. 🙂
And so, one Christmas I ended up making both cookies and bringing them into my office – they went over so, well, and while chocolate will always have my heart, this lemon drizzle cookie was so close to the Girl Scouts one that a little space in my heart opened up…
I only made that lemon drizzle cookie twice. And for some reason, I never put a recipe card for it in my collection, nor did I put a printout of the site in any of my recipe binders that I can find. As a result, when KL and I were talking about her distaste for chocolate, I told her I’d find that recipe, and share it here – only to realize that I didn’t have it handy! Trying to find it on Pinterest didn’t work either!
Luckily, I found this recipe, and it is pretty much spot on to what I was looking for. And now I’ve shared it on a site that I have control over!
Something I might change – the cookie itself is pretty much a basic shortbread. Next time I make this, I might put a teaspoon of lemon juice, or lemon zest, in the dough and see what that does. I don’t want to change the texture, but I’d like to have the lemon flavor in the cookie as well as the icing…
I’ll let you know (and update the recipe if it works)!