Friday, June 7, 2013

Turning Lemons into Lemon Rosemary Shortbread Cookies.







Each year, during the Carolina Farm Stewardship's Annual Upstate Farm Tour, the kids set up a lemonade stand and sell sweets made from ingredients grown in our garden. Typically, I bake lavender shortbread cookies—but this year, the lavender wasn't blooming in time for the tour. Instead, I harvested some rosemary from the front garden, minced it until it was nearly powder—honestly, I just don't like the texture of chunks of rosemary—and baked lemon rosemary cookies.



A friend gave me the recipe, which I modified a bit—I'm also not a fan of grated lemon peel. I just dislike the texture of it, so I omitted the lemon peel.




I'm crossing my fingers that next year we'll have our own lemons to use to flavor the cookies, too.



Lemon Rosemary Shortbread Cookies.



Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened


3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


4 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced well

1/4 teaspoon salt



Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add lemon juice and vanilla, mixing well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, rosemary and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Divide dough and roll into two, approximately 12-inch logs. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes to chill. Remove from freezer and cut logs into 1/4-inch slices. Place sliced dough on ungreased baking sheets, with cookies spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes, until edges turn golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans. 

Note: these cookies, while delicious, are fragile and tend to crumble or crack, so take your time! It's worth it, I promise. Makes approximately 8 dozen cookies.



Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll post the recipe for the strawberry muffins—perfect for a weekend breakfast!



Happy weekend!



XOXO ~



Julie

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