After all that rich chocolate from The Brownies (yes, capitalized), we needed something a little bit lighter.
A little bit fresher.
A little bit tart.
So I didn’t stop myself when these gorgeous cookies screamed ‘bake me’ when I saw them on Pinterest.
(Don’t recipes ever speak to you? It happens to me all the time…)
The Recipe:
Lemon Crackle Cookies, adapted from Lauren’s Latest
½ c butter, softened
1 c sugar
½ t vanilla
1 egg
zest of one lemon (about 1 T)
lemon juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1 1/2 T)
¼ t salt
¼ t baking powder
⅛ t baking soda
1-½ c all-purpose flour
½ c powdered sugar
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light-colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, 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 onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
The Results:
As the title of this post subtlety alluded, these cookies are like crack. You can’t just eat one, or two, or five.
They’re almost like the perfect mix of a lemon drop and snickerdoodle – barely crisp on the outside, chewy and full of lemon flavor on the inside. Thank goodness the recipe only made about two dozen or we would’ve been in big trouble.
(One thing I’d suggest if you make these, I’d line your cookie sheet with parchment, rather than grease them. Even with a generous greasing, my cookies stuck to the sheets. Just a little FYI.)
These cookies were just what we needed for a change of pace – and a little indoor sunshine.
Happiest of Mondays, everyone!
I live with a man who is an amazing cook. I am definitely not. But I'm learning. Join me as I share the ups and downs of figuring out this cooking thing.
These look so fluffy and delicious!
What perfect little cookies my friend, so soft and delicious
They look like lemon pillows!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Love the looks of these cookies, I would probably eat a dozen at one sitting, don’t think I should even attempt to make them.
MMMM These look delicious! I’m so obsessed with lemon flavor lately. Perfect and light!
I have had a bad craving for a lemon cookie. These look soft and so yummy. I like the way you described it between a lemon drop and a snickerdoodle. I can just picture how this cookie tastes and I am sooooo in.
These sound amazing, loving lemon at the moment. And yes, recipes speak to me all the time Courtney. Well, mostly through photos – cookbooks without photos are a dud!
Oh. My. Goodness. You are trying to destroy my willpower now aren’t you?! I HAVE to make these, then hide these, then snack on them as often as possible. Mmmmmmm. Lemon cookies. They look so soft and chewy too. Perfection Courtney!
These look like lemony clouds. Delicious lemony clouds.
oooh i love the sound of these cookies! So easy and refreshing! yummy!
Lemon mmmm……
Great looking cookie and I have so much lemon juice right now.
Yup recipes speak to me all the time too, but these cookies have me completely captivated!
My boys are so jealous right now! I don’t bake nearly as much as you, they always want me to bake cookies but if I do we eat them all in one day! These look great and light too! YUM!
I just made and posted these a little while ago too – I think the lemon starts calling after all tho rich things we bake. Yours look very adorable, more crinkly than mine turned out