Lemons Plus Baking = Cookies!

Although I don't like to cook, I LOVE baking. Yesterday I wanted to combine my love of baking with another food I love: lemons.

It's true. I love lemons. It's a life-long affair that started when I was a little girl. I don't remember who introduced me to them, but I am forever grateful. My preferred lemon-eating method is to cut it in half, salt it, then squeeze it and slurp up the juice. This is done as many times as are necessary until only pulp remains.

If it's a nice, really ripe lemon, I can then turn it inside out to get at the pulpy sections still adhering to the rind. Ahhh.

I have a friend at work who also likes lemons, but she puts sugar on hers. I'm a bit dubious about this, but may try it this weekend since another coworker gave me a bag of lemons from his tree. Wasn't that a lovely thing for him to do? I thought so too.

Another friend had given me several Meyer lemons from the tree in her back yard, so I had plenty to play with. Wonderful people, my friends.

Since I had an abundance of citrus-y goodness, I decided to delve into my recipe bookmarks for something I had never made. I considered attempting a lemon tart, but didn't feel the time was right for it since I had to work the next day and I wanted something that would be easy to share.

As I perused my list, I saw something that would work. Cookies!

The recipe was actually for Key Lime Meltaways over at Smitten Kitchen. I had seen lots of yummy sounding things over there, but this would be my first attempt at making one of them.

Because I can be reckless at times, I decided that I would ignore the fact that the recipe calls for an entirely different citrus fruit. I would simply have to make substitutions. It could have been a disaster, but it actually worked out very well. Your mileage may vary.

I did a one-to-one substitution of lemon juice for the lime juice, but had a harder time deciding just how much zest would result from four small key limes or two larger ones. Being too lazy to look it up on line, I guessed and used enough to fill up one tablespoon. Did I mention my tendencies toward recklessness?

I had a small frustration when I went to actually obtain the lemon zest. I mentioned that some of the lemons were Meyer lemons, which I absolutely adore. There was nothing about Meyers I didn't like - until yesterday. I was completely unable to zest them. The rinds were too smooth.

Fortunately, I had normal, pebbled-skinned lemons too thanks to my work friend. These provided an abundance of what was not to be found on the Meyers.

The recipe called for room temperature butter, but I had a time crunch, so I microwaved the butter for a few seconds. I didn't melt it, but it was very soft. It was probably this that led to a distinct lack of fluffiness in the batter once I added the vanilla and lemon juice. The liquids just did not incorporate well.

Did this stop me? No! I decided to forge on.

The resulting cookie dough was soft with a slight sheen to it. It was very easy to roll into tubes using parchment paper. When I took the cookie dough tubes out of the refrigerator an hour later, they were the perfect consistency for slicing. The cookies were ready to come out of the oven exactly 15 minutes after they went in, and they smelled wonderful, though the aroma didn't permeate the house the way chocolate chip cookies do.

It was very easy to follow this recipe and despite all my hurried adaptations the cookies were delicious. I would probably use more lemon zest next time, but then, I am a lemon fanatic. Everyone else was very happy with them as they were.