Lemon Kissed Snickerdoodles

Well, I’m home. Or most of me is home. I think my mind is still at the Foodbuzz Festival. Last night I had a nightmare Foodbuzz’s Ryan Stern was threatening me to eat more with her weapon fork while wine glasses knocked against my head until I consumed them. It was a rather funny dream that left me chuckling, and I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

How was the festival? Imagine having food and alcohol forced upon you for two plus days by friendly waiters with never ending trays of tidbits while hanging out with three hundred and fifty interesting, fun, super cool food blogger friends. Pretty darn fantastic is how I’d rate it. I tried to introduce myself to everyone, still missed about half.

As for the photography sessions, they zoomed by way too fast. I wish we had more time to share, but that's ok. Hopefully we were of some help. Marc was great to work with by the way. He and I were pretty relaxed and happy, making it easy to get through the chaos of having to move rooms between sessions.

Oh hey Dawn, you won the Spyder from last week as your number was picked. I imagine you’ll put it to good use. In return I expect to borrow that pretty red camper of yours.

I’m off to avoid food some more and edit several super silly pictures of bloggers on a scavenger hunt for tomorrow. I hope they’ll make you laugh when you see them.

Lemon Kissed Snickerdoodles
Printer Version
Heads up, the dough will need to chill for about an hour in the refrigerator.

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Zest of two lemons
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1. Cream the butter, sugar, salt, lemon zest and lemon juice together. Beat in the whipping cream and egg. Beat in the baking powder and then mix in the flour until just combined. Refrigerate about 1 hour, or until cool, but not hard.

2. Preheat the oven to 375. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

3. Mix together the cinnamon sugar ingredients in a small bowl. Scoop the dough with a mini or standard size cookie scoop and roll together with your hands into balls. Roll the balls in sugar mixture. Place two inches apart on cookie sheets.

4. Bake cookies for 10 to 11 minutes for standard size cookies, and 7 to 8 minutes for minis. Cool for 3 minutes on cookie sheets and then move to a cooling rack.

Recipe & photograph by Laura Flowers.

Berry Raspberry Icebox Cookies

I know I say this frequently, but these are my new favorite cookies and not just because they’re red, white and blue! I love how each layer has a different flavor but go so well together.

And don’t they look like I slaved over them? No such thing happened. The dough went together in a few short minutes. Think old Rice Krispie Treat commercials where mom pats flour on her face before carrying out a tray of treats, sighing as if she’s spent all her energy baking. That’s exactly how these cookies are.

Of course being red, white and blue might just be my real favorite part.

Berry Raspberry Icebox Cookies Printer Version

The instructions look long, but it's just details in case you need them.

2/3 cup butter, nearly melted and cooled slightly

2 eggs
2 pouches (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
Red food or icing dye
Blue food or icing dye
1 tablespoon raspberry Jell-O
1 tablespoon berry blue Jell-O

1. Line an 8x4-inch loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper over sides of pan.

2. In a stand mixer beat butter and eggs together. Add the sugar cookie mixes and beat until just combined.

3. Divide the dough into three equal parts and place in bowls. Set one part aside.

4. Add raspberry Jell-O and red dye for color (You’ll need quite a bit or they’ll be pink) to one part. Knead with your hands in the bowl until the Jell-O is mixed in then pick the dough up and finished kneading folding the dough over with your hands until combined. Repeat with berry blue Jell-O and blue dye.

5. Divide the doughs in half again to make 6 layers. Pat a red dough into the wax paper lined pan. Press gently with the back of a dry measuring cup to even out the dough. Next, pat a plain dough between your hands to form nearly the size of the pan. Press the plain dough into the pan over the red layer. Repeat with blue, red, white and blue.

6. Fold the wax paper over the cookie dough and cover with foil. Refrigerate for several hours until firm.

7. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

8. Once chilled, dump the dough out into a cutting surface.

9. Remove dough from pan and trim edges. Cut log into ¼” thick slices. Then cut slices in half to form squares.

10. Place cookies on sheets 1 1/2 inches apart. Freeze sheets for 10 minutes to retain shapes if desired.

11. Bake 8-10 minutes or until cookies are no longer wet looking and are very lightly golden on the sides.

12. Let cookies firm up on the cookie sheets for a couple of minutes then move to a cooling rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Recipe & photographs by Laura Flowers.

Rolled Sugar Cookies

Breathe. Are you ready for this? It’s time to prepare for Hanuxmasnyearkwanzavtines Day again. And no matter what you celebrate you need an irresistible rolled sugar cookie dough, and this is it!

At first this dough scared me. I thought it was too soft of a mess to ever work, but something magical happened upon refrigerating. It turned into the most wonderful to work with sugar cookie dough ever.

The best part about this dough is that you can roll it as thick or as thin as you want and it will bake beautifully, just keep and eye on them and adjust the time a bit. I enjoy these cookies plain and often choose not to frost them at all like this Scotty dog. My mother-in-law Diane gifted me with two antique Scotty dog cookie cutters a few years back and they’ve been my favorite ever since.

The Scotty dog’s leash is made with inexpensive craft cord. I cut the cords about nine inches long, tied a small loop around one end, and then tied the other end around the cookie to look like a collar. Then I trimmed off the extra ends, and melted them together with a lighter so they wouldn’t fray.

It was using this recipe I found that I could melt buttercream frosting in the microwave and it would turn into great cookie icing. If you have any lying around, try it out. Then of course there is always real cookie icing. Or none at all, as I enjoy biting the heads off my Scotty dogs just plain.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter, very softened and nearly melted

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons baking powder

5 cups all-purpose flour

Powdered sugar for rolling

Wax paper

Parchment paper

Instructions
1. In a mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat to combine. Add the baking powder and mix to incorporate. Then add the flour and mix just until the flour is mixed in. Be careful not to over mix the flour.

2. The dough will be very sticky, but spoon into about evenly onto three sections of wax paper the best you can. Wrap the wax paper around the dough sections and pat them to about an inch thick. Store all three of them in a gallon sized bag in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

3. After chilling, take the dough out of the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

4. Dust a clean surface and the top of the dough with a good amount of powdered sugar. Roll to desired thickness, anywhere from 1/8 inch to almost ½ inch. Cut out with cutters, and reroll scraps. Try to cut close together to prevent too much rerolling.

5. Place cookies on the cookie sheets about an inch apart and bake for anywhere from 6 to 10 minutes depending on size and thickness. Cookies will be done with the edges just begin to turn golden.

6. Let the cookies rest on the sheets until they harden enough to transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

By Laura Flowers