Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Spring is more than in the air here in the Midwest. My daffodils and hyacinths have come and gone (over two weeks ago!), the grass has already been mowed, and I've had to weed my garden. Twice. What a strange, kind of wonderful start to the year. While my husband mourned the lack of snow this past winter, I was doing jubilant dances as I didn't have to shovel once.

My youngest and I made these delicious cookies on a cold winter's day, and they tasted so much like spring that I couldn't decide whether to share them sooner or later. I chose later. :)

The cookie is pretty much the perfect lemon cookie: As you bite into it, it's slightly crunchy, but that yields to a chewy interior. And Lauren (whose blog this recipe came from) remarked that just out of the oven, it tasted a lot like a lemon bar, and I couldn't agree more. My little taste tester gave her approval.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Yield: 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 

Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside. Alternatively, use parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat 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 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely 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.
  
Source: Lauren's Latest