Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Most of the time when I think of making something for dessert, I find myself looking at chocolate.  That is definitely not a bad thing.  Chocolate is the best.  But once in a while I get a hankering for lemon or berry or some other flavor.  As soon as I saw these cookies, I knew I wanted to make them.

There was no way I was going to be able to make the one small batch the recipe calls for below.  I had to double it (and I probably should have tripled it).  There are just too many people to share them with, and that's not even counting my kids!  The recipe here is the original, so if you want it doubled, you will have to get those rusty math skills out and start doubling.

The only problem I had with this recipe was with the cooking time.  It really should be a few minutes longer.  After letting a couple of the pans cool off, I ate a cookie and it had that raw dough flavor (see picture below).  Thankfully I hadn't made the last batch yet, so I left them in extra long and ended up loving the cookie.  It really is buttery and lemony with a softer center and delicious crunchy edges.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for approximately 11 minutes or until bottoms begin to brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.


(These are the cookies that were okay, but not cooked long enough.  See the picture above for nice, crispy edges!)

Source: Lauren Brennan; laurenslatest.com