A Crinkle Just In Time: Cookie #11 Lemon Crinkles
Jamie is home and decided it was time to bake and bail me out, as she always does, on my attempt to post 12 Days of Cookies. I’m soooo close, this is cookie number 11. If it wasn’t for “being under the weather”, I would have posted this yesterday. We definitely needed a citrus cookie so she picked a Lemon Crinkles. The recipe comes from Fresh April Flours by Lynn. I think it was karma that Jamie picked this recipe, Lynn is a scientist by trade and a field hockey player. Imagine that? Fate.
A riff on Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, these gems are bursting with lemon flavor, a delightfully refreshing cookie that’s easy to make and sure to appeal to any citrus lover.
If you are a lemon FREAK. You could up the amount of zest or play with the amount of lemon juice (just a bit since adding liquid can effect the texture). Remember, adding zest ups the lemon flavor while adding lemon juice will increase the tartness. Baking soda also tempers sourness (which is why I add baking soda to my buttermilk biscuits, I don’t want the tang). You could play around with leaving out the baking soda and adding more baking powder…but this is speculation on my part, so you are entering the change at your own risk zone.
Using you handy dandy ice cream/cookie scoops. Use a 1.5 tablespoon scooper for a good size cookie. Roll the scoops into smooth uniform balls before LIBERALLY rolling in the powdered sugar. Some of the sugar will be absorbed by the moisture in the dough. For that nice white jagged snowy cap, keep on rollin’.
Cookies spreading too much? Chill-out and chill the dough well. This means on warm days, chill the dough, scoop out the balls, if they are soft, chill again.
Bake these bad boys off and sit down with a nice cup of tea and enjoy! Or tease your Dog…
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature = 1 stick
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg room temperature*
- 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 T for more tartness
- zest of one lemon can increase for more lemon flavor
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl, toss together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (approximately 2-3 minutes). Beat in vanilla, egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Cover bowl and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour and up to 3 days. If chilling longer than 1 hour, allow to sit at room temperature about 15 minutes before rolling into balls.
- When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
- Pour the powdered sugar onto a large plate. Using a large cookie scoop, scoop the dough out of the bowl and roll into a ball with your hands. Dough ball does not need to be perfect. Roll the ball of dough generously in the powdered sugar. Place no more than 8 balls of dough on a baking sheet at one time (4 rows of 2). Chill dough you are not using.
- Bake cookies for 13-14 minutes or until cookies look mostly matte (not wet or shiny). Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 10 days. Baked cookies freeze well, up to 2 months. Rolled cookie dough can be frozen up to 3 months. Roll in powdered sugar before baking and bake frozen. Add another 1-2 minutes to baking time.
Forward Progress…courtesy of Jamie….an Instagram Story on making Lemon Crinkles! It gets a little loss in translation on the blog but it’s a start..onto 2019!