The Lemon Drop Verdict

I forgot to let everyone know about the Lemon Drop Cookie  verdict. They were a big success. Within two days there were gone. I was so happy about that. grin. We decided to add them to our holiday baking line up. :)

Lemon Drop Cookies

Lemon Drops are my drink of choice. There is something about the smoothness of the vodka mixed with the tartness of the lemon and the crunch of the sugar crystals that gets me every time. It has a way of reminding me of lazy summer days and childhood lemonade stands. And if you make this drink with vanilla vodka instead of regular vodka…it’s absolutely amazing! sigh. So, my goal…to make a cookie that gave me the same lazy summer feeling minus the alcohol. And although I can’t say I totally succeeded  the cookies are still pretty good. As always let me know if you have any improvements.

Lemon Drop Cookies

3 1/4 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
6 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 drops yellow food coloring
pinch of salt

Glaze
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups powder sugar
3 drops yellow food coloring
milk

sugar crystals or raw sugar

In medium bowl mix flour, salt and baking powder. In a separate mixing bowl cream sugar, butter, egg, vanilla extract and almond extract until smooth. Mix in lemon juice and yellow food coloring to butter mixture. Slowly add flour to mixture until the mixture forms a ball. Shape dough into a rectangle and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until cookie dough becomes hard. Cut rectangle into even slices. For harder cookies make the slices thinner. For softer cookies make the slices thicker. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool Completely.

In a medium sized sauce pan add all of the glaze ingredients except milk. Stir constantly over low heat. Add milk until you reach desired consistency. The glaze should be slightly runny.

Frost the cooled cookies with glaze and decorate with sugar crystals

These cookies are pretty tart. I like them that way but next time I make them I might try adding less lemon juice and more sugar. I also might take the lemon juice out of the glaze altogether and just use milk. I frosted these 2 different ways to see which one I liked better. The edged one looks really cute but then you don’t get as much frosting.

The verdict is still out on these. For Sunday dinner my father bought a cake from an auction so I just dropped these cookies off to my parents today. I’ll let you know what they think. But the husband actually tasted them even though he swears he doesn’t like dessert and he said they were pretty good. Hope you like them too!

Enjoy. grin. :)