Tags: 12daysofchristmascookies Christmas cookies Holiday Sweet Tooth
Back when the Food Network was actually about cooking food, my sister and I loved to watch Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. The premise of the show was how you could combine fresh ingredients with store-bought items to make a delicious family meal…and there was ALWAYS a matching cocktail.
Speaking of matching, her studio kitchen always matched the theme of the episode. If she was showing you how to make semi-homemade enchiladas, her kitchen was decorated for a fiesta…complete with hot pepper curtains. A nice Italian pasta meal was complimented with hanging dried garlic and red, white and green décor. Even her outfit matched her menu theme…No joke!
We didn’t watch her because she cooked particularly well or because we liked her methods. No, we watched it because she was pure entertainment. The highlight of any Semi-Homemade episode was when she used lemons in a recipe. She really dug her heels into those “L’s” and had a way of making anything with lemon sound like a party. It wasn’t “lemon-pepper chicken” or “lemonade” it was “LLLemony LLLemon pepper chicken” and “LLLemony LLLemonade!” It’s been years since we’ve watched good ol’ Sandra Lee, but my sister and I still joke about LLLemony LLLemonade.
Regardless of whether it’s a “lemon” recipe or a “LLLemon” recipe, I’m on board! I love all things lemon. I add lemon to just about anything I can, and try all the lemon recipes I can get my hands on. I love lemon!
This is one of my all-time favorite lemon recipes. These lemon crinkle cookies are light and fluffy with the perfect balance of tangy and sweet. They’re packed with lemon flavor from both juice and zest and then rolled in confectioners’ sugar to make them the perfect lemon cookie.
I’ve tried a lot of lemon cookie recipes in my day…mostly trying to replicate the little lemon moon cookies they give you at Maggiano’s…but most recipes call for lemon extract and that just makes them taste fake. Other recipes call for too much sugar (between the frosting and the actual cookie) and the sweetness drowns out the lemon. No Bueno!
These cookies are perfectly balanced. They’re not frosted in sickly sweet frosting, and because they’re rolled in confectioners’ sugar before baking, the dough recipe doesn’t call for a ton of sugar. A little sugar and a lot of lemon zest and freshly squeezed juice…perfection! I think Sandra Lee would approve of these LLLemony LLLemon Crinkle Cookies!
LEMON CRINKLE COOKIES
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· ½ tsp baking soda
· ¼ tsp salt
· ½ cup butter, softened
· ¾ cup sugar
· 2 eggs, room temperature
· 3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
· 2 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
· 1 tsp vanilla
· Confectioners’ sugar, to coat*
Preheat oven to 350°
Pour some confectioners’ sugar into a shallow bowl. Set aside
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
Mix in lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla.
Fold in the flour mixture and mix until just combined (do not overmix!)
Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, roll in confectioners’ sugar, and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
*SIDE NOTE: The secret to a really beautiful crinkle cookie is to coat your dough balls in the confectioners’ sugar TWICE. If the outside layer of sugar is thicker, the cracks (crinkles) will be more pronounced.
