Vanilla Citrus Roll-out Sugar Cookies

Simple miniature daisies coated with Lemon Drop Glaze
with a small yellow center piped from thickened, colored glaze.

When it is Spring, my head thinks of lemony desserts.  Happens every year.  The tart sweet combination of lemon and sugar is a flavor explosion for me!  I decided to make a recipe for a roll-out cookie dough utilizing some of my favorite flavors.  I think it turned out fairly well and is really just a simple rendition of the most popular cookie dough I make, the Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie.

These cookies are great with a simple lemon glaze or they can be beautifully decorated with royal icing flavored with either vanilla or fresh strained lemon juice.  Yum.

Here's what I did.

Vanilla Citrus Roll-out Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter - room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg - room temperature

1 Tbsp Vanilla Bean Paste

1 Tbsp Cream

1 tsp Lor-ann's Lemon Emulsion

Zest of medium lemon (finely zested - with a Microplane - don't get the pith!)

Juice of that same lemon (after zesting) - should be about 2 Tbsp

3 cups All Purpose Flour - unbleached preferred

1/4 tsp. baking powder (may use up to 1 tsp of baking powder if you want a higher rise)

Method:

In bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until well mixed.  

Add egg and mix until incorporated.  

Add vanilla bean paste, cream, lemon emulsion, zest, and juice of lemon.  Mix until smooth.  

Measure flour and add baking powder to flour, stirring to combine throughout.  

Add 1/2 of flour mixture to mixture in bowl and mix on low setting of stand mixer.  

Add the rest of the flour after all incorporated, again on low.  

Stop and scrape all the way to the bottom, pulse again.  

Re-check for crumblies on the bottom of the bowl and scrape up into dough with a spatula.  

Pulse again to fully incorporate all dry ingredients.  Don't over mix.

Love the flecks of lemon zest and vanilla bean that show in
the dough.  Wonderful flavor!

Divide dough in half, pat into a fat pancake shape, and wrap each half in plastic wrap.  

Chill in refrigerator for at least an hour.  Roll between two sheets of parchment for easier rolling of this sticky dough.  If you need to roll on the bench - flour generously to avoid sticking, or add an additional 1/2 cup of flour to the dough when mixing the dry ingredients in.  I always place my baking sheet with cut-outs on it into the freezer for about 15 minutes.  Since this is such a soft dough, I want to ensure the butter firms up and doesn't spread too much when baking.  After the freezer time, it is easy to brush any excess flour from the cookies with a pastry brush before baking.

Dip cookie cutter in flour so it doesn't
stick in this sticky dough.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until the bottom edge of the cookies are just barely starting to turn a light brown.

That can take anywhere between 10 and 18 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie and the particular pan I'm using.    These minis took about 12 minutes.

Remove when done and place pan on a cooling rack.  

Rest for at least 15 minutes.  

Remove from cookie sheet onto a cooling rack until completely cooled.  

  

I made a batch of  Lemon Drop Glaze and dipped the cookies upside down, placed on rack over the lined baking sheet and allowed to drip down the edges.

With the leftover glaze, I added more sifted powdered sugar and 2 drops of AmeriColor Electric Yellow gel color, and stirred until it was thick enough to pipe.  Using a #3 tip, I piped a little yellow circle in the middle of the daisy.  They were completely dry within 4 hours and able to be stacked between sheets of waxed paper in a container for storage.

Use at least a #3 tip so the zest doesn't clog the tip.

I had one of these this morning - it is a 2 or 3 bite cookie (if you are dainty - one bite if you aren't).  Wonderfully fragrant and full of flavor, enjoyed with a hot cup of tea or coffee.  These are not going to hang around very long I'm afraid!!!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Cookies for Book Signing

I love to take baked goods to share when our wonderful indie bookstore, Paragraphs on Padre Blvd, hosts a book signing.  I haven't been in my baking groove (as you can tell from the lack of posts) for some time.  Last night and this morning, however, I was "on" and ready to bake!  Both of these cookies have been blogged about before - but I decided to go ahead and re-post anyway!  The Lemon Ricotta Cookie below was changed only by the utilization of Meyer Lemons this time around.  Have to say I LOVE them.  I made one tiny change to the glaze by zesting two lemons instead of one in the glaze.  Meyer Lemon zest is much less tart (to my taste) than the usual lemons used in the past.  They are a cake-like cookie which I find very appealing.  I think they turned out great.

The other treat is a Vanilla Bean Madeleine.  Also, the perfect joining of cookie and cake!  Sometimes I make excellent Madeleines with no effort...and other times, like today, each batch was a struggle.  Nonetheless, they turned out okay and taste quite yummy.

If you are a local, and want to try any of these treats, come by the Pat McGrath Avery signing and discussion of her book "Emergence - The John Bax Story".  It's bound to be a good activity; an informative discussion of John Bax's life as a self-taught filmmaker who loved birds and captured incredible and beautiful scenes of birds in the wild.  He spent many years of his life in South Texas so I can't wait to learn more!  It is today, April 12, 2013, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.  Paragraphs is located at 5505 Padre Blvd. South Padre Island, TX.  Hope to see you there!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Put the Lime in the Coconut and Eat 'em All Up...

I'm going to hear poetry readings Saturday at Paragraph's On Padre Blvd.... one of the events in the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival.  I went last year and really enjoyed the readings.  The teen and I will be on the island anyway getting him a haircut from Sharla at Venus Nails and Spa...and ordering wrist corsages (yes, that is plural) for his dates to Prom (it's a long story for another time - they're going as friends).  Anyway, he's into poetry, because when he hears or reads poetry...he tends to want to put it to music.  I told him I wanted to go over to Paragraphs for their second session, and he said he wouldn't mind joining me.  Sounds like a nice afternoon.

Now, when I go visit Joni and Griff, the most awesome booksellers on the planet, I feel an unremitting urge to take treats with me.  I've been staying out of the kitchen this week due to my abundant baking last week, so I really wasn't prepared nor in a planning state of mind.  I'd been idly catching up on my food magazines this afternoon after finishing work and I recalled I'd seen an interesting and simple cake called a French Yogurt Cake.  I grabbed the Bon Appetit that I'd been perusing and flipped through until I found it.  It was a recipe with lemon...and I had one lemon....and I had Greek yogurt and I had everything else required...pretty basic cake.  It called for a tablespoon of fine lemon zest and I only had one lemon...but I had a lime.  I figured I could add the two together and that would work.  I, of course, wanted petite bites for the bookstore visitors, so I decided I could do mini cupcakes with this batter.  I wasn't sure what to do for a topping - the cake in the magazine was just a loaf cake - no glaze or anything.  Huh, well, I could figure that out later.  It was 7:30 on a Friday night and I wanted to get these baked off so I headed to the kitchen.

Now, I have to tell you, I have not made a cake by hand in quite a while.  I use a stand mixer most all the time!  This recipe, however, called for hand whisking of the wet stuff and folding in of the dry stuff.  It was rather relaxing I must say.

I also substituted 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste instead of the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract called for...and my Greek yogurt turned out to be fat free, which I didn't notice until I was throwing the container away and the cupcakes were in the oven.  *Shrug* - nothing to be done about it at this point.  Hoped they'd be okay.

Here's the recipe, slightly modified as described.  The article was written by Andrew Knowlton and he said "it was often the first dessert French children learn to prepare".  It sounds delicious so thanks for sharing that recipe Bon Appetit!

French Yogurt Mini Cupcakes
Adapted from Bon Appetit's French Yogurt Cake
May 2012 Issue, Page 30

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup white granulated sugar
Zest from one lemon and one lime (1 Tbsp approx.)
   using a micro plane for a very fine zest

3/4 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line mini cupcake pans with paper liners (I got about 32 cupcakes from the recipe)

In a 2 cup mixing cup, measure the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt together.
Whisk until well blended.  Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine sugar and zest from both lemon and lime.  With fingers of both hands, rub the sugar and zest together until sugar is moist and you can see flecks of zest evenly distributed throughout the sugar.

To the sugar mixture, add Greek yogurt, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla bean paste.  Manually whisk to blend.

Fold in dry ingredients just to blend.  The batter will be quite thick.

I used a small cookie dough scoop and loaded one scoop into each cupcake liner.
Bake until top of cupcakes are golden and a tester inserted into center comes out clean.  This took 21-22 minutes for me.  I started checking at 20 minutes and they were almost perfect - and I let them go just a couple minutes longer to get a bit more golden.  The toothpick came out clean. 

While I typed this I found myself singing Put the Lime in the Coconut and thought - HEY, maybe a lemon/lime fluffy frosting (using the juice from the nekkid lemon and lime) and some coconut added in?  Or on top?  I don't know.  I guess you will have figured out the answer to that question when you looked at the blog because I know there will be a photo on top!

I also sampled a hot-out-of-the-oven cupcake.  Oh MY!  These could indeed be eaten plain.  They are not overly citrusy - but I can taste both the lime and the lemon.  These are awesome!!!  I do believe they would have been even more awesome with whole milk yogurt...but these are none to shabby that's for sure.

Here's what I finally did for the frosting...

Lime in the Coconut Frosting

Ingredients:

4 ounces butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
16 ounces powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
2 tablespoons juice from one lime and one lemon squeezed
   into a bowl over a strainer  - there will be leftover juice.
6 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
1 drop Wilton Leaf Green gel paste

Method:

Beat butter and cream cheese until incorporated and fluffy.  Add vanilla bean paste and mix until incorporated.  Add 1/2 of the powdered sugar, mix well, and add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until you have a lumpy mixture.
Add juice one tablespoon at a time and mix thoroughly after each addition.  Frosting will have smoothed out at this point - if not, add juice a tiny bit at a time until "just right".
Add coconut and whip for 30 seconds on medium high.
I added a drop of leaf green gel paste - to get the "lime" concept obvious to the oblivious :-)
Whip to incorporate color evenly.

I chose to pipe the frosting - but it was not easy with the coconut in the frosting.  It was difficult to get the frosting to exit the tip smoothly from start to finish.  I couldn't get the center point to release because the coconut was stringy in the tip...and I was quite off kilter in my piping as I struggled for even coverage.  If I do this again, I'd probably just frost them with an offset spatula.

I did, of course, have one as a quality control check.  Pretty darn delicious I must say.  The slight tartness of the cream cheese and citrus juices balanced out the sweetness of the confectioner's sugar.  The cupcakes themselves were mildly citrus and it really worked nicely together.

Those cupcakes would also be good with a lemon or lime glaze...guess I'll have to make them again sometime and give that a whirl!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!

Shared With: