Lemon-Honey Drop Cookies

While I was lucky enough to have dinner planned and cooked for me on my birthday, I still had a dessert to make. But after a long week, and an even longer weekend, I ended up waiting until the last possible second on Sunday night. So to guarantee at least eight hours of sleep, I turned to these simple-looking little tea cookies.

Let’s just say I wasn’t in the best of moods from the get go. I was tired, a little stressed out, and had the worries of an early Monday morning looming over my head. I really just wanted to snuggle up with a good movie. But for the sake of keeping this project going, I pressed on.

I won’t bore you with all the zesting/beating/mixing details. It really was quite a cinch. Then I dropped the cookies by level tablespoons, as the recipe says, onto cookie sheets. And since the recipe said by “level tablespoon,” the perfectionista inside of me took over and I robotically measured each and every one, but somehow, still ended up with about 20 cookies too many. Not gonna help with the whole bad mood thing. But whatever, I baked them.

 

 

 

 

Next, I whipped up the glaze and brushed it over the cookies while they were still hot in the pans. And because I’m not fancy enough to own a pastry brush yet, I used the next best thing – a paint brush. It worked pretty well. Until the clear bristles started getting stuck in the clear glaze. Wonderful.

 

Then, you’re supposed to sprinkle the cookies with lemon peel, but since I’d taken extra time picking out paint brush bristles, and was a little distracted with the hilarious YouTube video, "David at the Dentist" (Luke’s attempt to cheer me up), the glaze had already dried. So I slapped on a little more, sprinkled as fast as I could, ran out of peel, zested more lemons, slapped on more glaze, sprinkled, picked out bristles, and ….done.

Only one problem. I’d left them on the pan entirely too long, and the cookies had permanently adhered. When I tried to remove them, they held on for dear life. I think I had a mini meltdown at that point. I’d just spent so much time meticulously decorating those dainty little cookies, and just a light tap from a spatula broke them into teeny puzzle pieces. Somehow I managed to scrape most of them off and delicately transferred them to the cooling rack, and a few of the badly broken ones to Luke’s happily awaiting paws. But as they cooled, their torn undersides began to fall through the wires, and by the time they were ready to be put away, the table was covered in crumbs. But you know what? No one looks at the underside of a cookie. It’s the top that matters, right? Especially when the “no one” is just Luke and me.

The cookies were actually pretty good. Reminded us a lot of the raspberry strippers. Same glaze. The lemon peel gets crunchy, kinda like toasted coconut flakes. Luke liked them a lot. But if I make them again, I’ll be sure to turn off the videos and pitch the paintbrush. Maybe then they’ll turn out good enough ward off a sour mood. Even if they are lemon cookies.

Lemon-Honey Drop Cookies

Yield: 32 cookies (serving size: 1 cookie)

Ingredients:
1/2  cup  granulated sugar
7  tablespoons  butter or stick margarine, softened
2  teaspoons  grated lemon rind
1/3  cup  honey
1/2  teaspoon  lemon extract
1  large egg
1 3/4  cups  all-purpose flour
1  teaspoon  baking powder
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1/4  cup  plain fat-free yogurt
Cooking spray
1  cup  powdered sugar
2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
2  teaspoons  grated lemon rind

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat first 3 ingredients with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add honey, extract, and egg; beat until well-blended. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Combine powdered sugar and juice in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Brush powdered sugar mixture evenly over hot cookies. Sprinkle evenly with 2 teaspoons rind. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 89 (28% from fat), Fat: 2.8g (sat 1.6g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.2g), Protein: 1.1g, Carbohydrate: 15.3g, Fiber: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 14mg, Iron: 0.4mg, Sodium: 81mg, Calcium: 15mg

Source: Cooking Light, December 2000