Yikes. I've been so busy this summer that I've let lots and lots of time pass between when I published the "Picturing" post for these cookies and this recipe. Sorry about that! Where does the time go? How is it possible that kids are starting school tomorrow? (Cue Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game.")
But I digress. And I'm pretty sure one of the main rules about blogging is not to talk about or apologize for not having blogged in a while. Oof. I digress. Again. Ok...back to the business at hand: cookies.
I wanted to make a summery cookie when I came up with this recipe. (Boy, I got this one out just in the nick of time!) And nothing sounded more summery to me at the time than lemonade and berries.
I started with my old trick of tripling the citrus by using lemon juice, extract, and zest. And then I dusted off another of my favorite flavor-filled tricks: tea. Yes, tea! The juice, extract and zest bring that bright, fresh, lemony pop to the recipe, and the tea rounds out everything with a hint of spice and skosh of smoke. It's like taking the flavors of morning and mixing them with those of dusk. (Sorry...that might be a bit much. Even I think that last line is bordering on precious.)
With the lemon part of the recipe taken care of, the next step was to move on to the berries. My original plan was to add dehydrated blackberries or raspberries to the dry ingredients, but I couldn't find any dehydrated berries at my grocery store. And then it dawned on me: raspberry jam thumbprints. And so a cookie was born!
Makes 2 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Lemon-Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies.)
|
Filling |
Seedless raspberry jam |
|
Creamables |
1 stick butter 1 cup white sugar Contents of 4 Lemon Zinger tea bags |
|
Wet Ingredients |
1 egg 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest 2 teaspoons lemon juice 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 teaspoons milk 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract |
|
Dry Ingredients |
2 1/3 cups finely ground oatmeal 3/4 cup flour Contents of 6 Lemon Zinger tea bags 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt |
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
- In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together until smooth.
- Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes.
- Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
- Place the dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
- Use your thumb to make an indentation in each dough ball. Fill each indentation with about 1/2 teaspoon of the raspberry jam.
- Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.
