Honey Lemon Cookies

When I see 'lemon' in a recipe, I think delicate, sunny, light, sweet. And I needed some of those with my horrible sinus infection and the fickle fickle New Zealand weather. (C'mon! Make up your mind, already! Four seasons in one day - totally confusing!)

These cookies are closer to cake, like madeleines. They're very soft and subtle. And these aren't one of those cookies that would dazzle you at first bite (or sight). Rather, these will subtly grow on you like....your new jeans you have to wear a few times until you declare it your favourite......Just this morning, I, inadvertantly, ate four cookies in one sitting. Oooops!

The original recipe calls for sugar icing but I coated the cookies with chocolate ganache, instead. I had some cream that I needed to use up. The ganache, I liked very much. :) (Although, they are fantastic on their own, too)


Honey Lemon Cookies
From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 7 Tbsp butter, softened (about 98g)
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 C honey
• 1/4 C plain yogurt (I used sour cream because it's what I had)
• 2 tsp grated lemon peel
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract (I used 2 Tbsp of lemon juice because, again, it's what I had)
• ICING
• 1 C confectioners' sugar
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp grated lemon peel

What you do

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Combine honey, yogurt, lemon peel and lemon extract. Add dry ingredients to cream mixture alternately with honey mixture.
3. Drop by tablsponfuls 2 inches aprt onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks.
4. In a small bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Brush over the warm cookies; sprinkle with lemon peel.

Chocolate Ganache (I made very little ganache, so you may want to double this recipe if you want to coat all of your cookies)

1. In medium-high heat cook 1/4 C of thickened cream to boil in a saucepan.
2. When the cream comes to boil and is smooth, turn the heat off and pour 100g of bittersweet dark chocolate chips into the saucepan and sir until all is smooth. Remove from heat and cool for about 30 minutes or until ganache is lukewarm.
3. When the cookies have cooled, spoon 1-2 tablespoons of ganache over cookies that are on a tray with parchment paper.
4. Refrigerate cookies until the ganache sets.