BONUS RECIPE STUDY: This past weekend was my husband's birthday. I wanted to bake him a special treat, but he's not big on cake, muffins or generally anything too sweet. However, he does love my lemon cookies which I bake all the time, so I thought I'd change things up a bit. I decided to toss in some cocoa -- I can't think of anyone who doesn't like chocolate! So I grabbed some pure organic cocoa and some dark chocolate almonds. My micro plane came into use with creating a fine chocolate almond powder. For those familiar with our Glazed Lemon Cookies, lemon zest is key for adding flavor, and it was equally effective in this case. There were very few changes in the technique for these delicious morsels. I decided not to add any almond extract to the dough. That would create a vastly different cookie, which I will save for a future post.
The end result was a rich (but not too rich) chocolate cookie with a hint of lemon. It actually reminded me of a two-bite brownie, which is not necessarily a bad thing, since these cookies are lower in calories. But who's counting??
I placed a single candle in the center of a cookie, and after singing happy birthday, he made a wish and blew it out. It was perfect.
Baking tip: If the dough is a bit dry from the cocoa, add more fresh lemon juice, a tablespoon at a time.
YIELD: 40-46 COOKIES
DIFFICULTY: BEGINNER
TOTAL PREP & BAKE TIME: APPROXIMATELY 30 MINUTES
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons pure cocoa
- 5 dark chocolate covered almonds, grated
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure cocoa
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grate chocolate almonds with microplane. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate almonds. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, and lemon juice and beat until combined. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture.
- Drop dough by 1-inch scoops, onto two baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool 2 minutes on sheets, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Spread cookies with Chocolate Glaze and let set, about 1 hour.
Chocolate Glaze
- To make the glaze, whisk together confectioners' sugar, cocoa and lemon juice until smooth.
If I had to adjust anything, I would add more chocolate almonds to this recipe. Instead of 5, I would probably use 10-15. Next time!