There is only 29 days left until Christmas! Can you believe it? So what are your plans this year?I plan to put up the Christmas tree and decorations on the 1st of December. I am also making some Christmas stockings for everyone in the family - even the cats. We will be having Christmas lunch with my mother and sister at our place, with simple food and of course dessert. The gifts this year are going to be simple - homemade gifts baked with love, some new toys for the little one and some other small bits and bobs.
Enough about that. Lets talk about these Iced Lemon Cookies. I had trouble with these cookies - again the dough would not come together so I had to slightly alter the recipe. Then came the royal icing piping. Well you'll see how that turned out. And finally the cookies were just a bit bleh - not very lemony and not that sweet. So not my favourite, I probably won't make them again.
Iced Lemon Cookies (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2007)
Makes 30 small cookies (or 16 large cookies)
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup caster sugar
pinch of salt
125g butter, chilled, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp lemon essence
extra flour, for kneading
- Put flour, almond meal, sugar and salt in a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Add butter and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and lemon essence and process until mixture forms into a ball (I needed to add another half an egg before my dough would come together).
- Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Pat dough into a disc, put into a plastic bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 160C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Use a Christmas cutter to cut out shapes. Put shapes on oven trays. Bake for 12 minutes or until cooked through. Leave on trays for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Ice with royal icing (recipe below).
Royal Icing (if you don't trust raw egg whites you could use this recipe instead)
2 egg whites
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp lemon juice
- Beat egg whites until frothy.
- Add icing sugar a little at a time until you have stiff peaks.
- Beat in the lemon juice.
When I started to ice this cookies I quickly discovered that I have ZERO piping skills. And I mean zero. Look at my sorry excuse for piping...
It kind of made me angry....
And this little man was very sad about the way he was piped...
I tried to talk him out of it....
But it was too late...
Luckily the 10 second rule applies in this house and we got to eat him.
Oh well - practice makes perfect. I'll just have to make more cookies!
Rating?
2 out of 5 reindeers!
17 comments:
I like your little people & hey, I thought it was a 3 second rule :) my kids don't follow any rules though, they'll try anything!
I'd probably use the juice & zest of a lemon & see if that made a difference in the dough & flavour and really, 1/2 a cup doesn't sound like alot of sugar.
your piping is definitely not as bad as you think.
Stockings for the cats?! Oh my! Funny story about the snowman! My piping skills are also pretty bad!
awwww, poor snowman. too bad they didn't come out as well as you would have liked! To go to all the trouble and not have them be super yummy is a let down.
I think they LOOK delicious, though :)
Those cookies are just so cute. Soooo cute. But didn't notice them at first because I was panicking at the idea of < 30 days baking time until Christmas.
EEK! Still have to finish the plan.
Oh this is too funny with the lil snowman!! I usually make the standard chrismtas cookies, but I think I'm going to get a few cookie cutters and change it up. This looks so much fun to see the lil snowmen!! =)
Awwww... only 2 out of 5 reindeer? Even will all that hard work? BTW, your cookies baked up so nice and evenly. My cookies never bake that evenly and if the end product even slightly resembles the shape they were originally intended to be, I'm pleased. I think your piping is just fine!
I'm glad to hear the 10 second rule is employed elsewhere, but sorry (and somewhat embarassed) to say that sometimes, it's the 15 second rule over here...
OH! P.S. -- new blog for personal posts vs. Miss Dot's Cupcake Spot which will be kept more cupcake-related :)
Oh no! Poor little cookie man!
You are scaring me with those piping techniques, maybe I should practice some more cause I actually planned making iced cookies Christmas tree decorations. Oh boy why do I have a feeling that is going to turn out a disaster.....!!!
Haha Alicia - you're cool :D
Poor little man...!
And I love your idea for Christmas. Would be a perfect christmas for me! Can't wait to see your stockings. I'd love a homemade chirstmas. I'm trying to make lots of homemade stuff this year. Homemade and simple rocks. It's the company and togetherness that's important :)
I looked at these from the wrong angle & for some reason I thought they were iced christmas fish! Snowmen make much more sence.
I looked at these from the wrong angle & for some reason I thought they were iced christmas fish! Snowmen make much more sence.
only 29 days left ekkk! I love your idea of baking gifts for the family, I'm planning to do this too. Your snowman cookies look so cute, shame they tasted a bit dissapointing.
Oh my, you are TOO funny!
I need to go through the archives and find that cookie recipe you had that I wanted to use...
Off I go. Hope it's not dusty back there. ;)
Hey... at least your piping was recognizable. I loved the ties. :)
Only 2 out of 5??? That sucks... they look adorable and the name alone sounded yummy... :^(
Not a very high rating, but they look really cute. And the post had me chuckling. : )
Aw well they are adorable even if they weren't tasty. Better luck next time :).
Too funny! And sad. Poor guy. You should doodle him in his memory.
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