Game Day Lemon Tea Cookies

Still high on the Martha Stewart crack that led to the New Year's cupcakes, I decided to make some Minnesota Vikings' themed snacks to eat while the game was on. No, I am not a Vikings' fan, but I live with one and I love any excuse for a theme party, even if it is only for 2 people. I'm far too lazy/frugal to buy food coloring so I thought I'd try to fashion appropriately colored snacks out of natural ingredients: blackberries (purple) and lemons (yellow).

Total time: ~1 hour, but that includes an icing mishap (blackberry juice looks more pink than purple), taking a break for a glass of Albariño, and making up a Vikings-inspired cocktail. Also, zesting lemons always takes longer than I think it will.

VERDICT: total self-call, but the cookies are AMAZING (and were an excellent way to continue the pantry clean out). So delicate and buttery. The lemon icing was surprisingly light and the Meyer lemons were not as cloying as I thought they would be. Definitely making these again for summer gatherings.

Lemon Tea Cookies (with icing)

adapted from What's Cooking America, yields 2-3 dozen cookies (depending on size).

2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

4 teaspoons lemon zest

6 tablespoons lemon juice (strained please!)

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup corn starch

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine butter, 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

2. Add flour, corn starch, salt, and lemon zest to butter mixture. Knead dough with hands to make sure that there are no lumps of butter.

3. Roll dough into 3/4 to 1-inch balls and space an inch apart on an un-greased cookie sheet.

4. For the icing: in a small bowl, whisk in powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, to remaining lemon juice until icing has the consistency of thick glue. Add more powdered sugar if needed. For a boozy icing, use limoncello and lemon zest instead of juice.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. The tops will be pale, but the bottoms should be golden brown. Let cool completely before icing (the cookies are very delicate when they first come out of the oven; let them cool for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack).

Minnesota Vikings' "Mojito" Cooler

frozen blackberries, muddled

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 oz lemon juice

1 oz vodka

mint-flavored sparkling water (I was too lazy to get mint so I substituted flavored sparkling water for the muddled mint and club soda.)

lemon twist (garnish)

ice

Added some yellow sugar to make the cookies pop.
The lemon 'V' was a complete accident.

Boozy Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

I had a ton of peppermint candies and creme de menthe from making peppermint mocha cupcakes and obviously need to use them up. There was a serious lack of cookies in the apartment and making 2 cupcake batches in less than a week seemed excessive (I cannot have 2 tubs of leftover cake topping/frosting in the fridge), so I decided to make chocolate crinkle cookies with a minty and boozy twist.

Total time: ~45 minutes, includes letting cookies cool and drinking wine and catching up on T.I. and Tiny (best show on VH1 in my humble opinion).

VERDICT: the roommate was pleasantly surprised to see even more treats in the apartment and ate a good portion of them after dinner. She also agreed to share with her coworkers if there were leftovers. I assume it's a good sign that she thinks other people might want in on them. Sadly, the booze bakes out of the cookies, but making a cookie sandwich with some leftover boozy ganache would solve that problem or even a quick boozy buttercream.

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

adapted from Real Simple, yields 3-4 dozen cookies (depending on size).

1 1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 salt

1 stick butter

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 shot creme de menthe

powdered sugar (for dusting)

crushed peppermint candies (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and brown sugar. Beat eggs in, one at a time, then add creme de menthe.

3. Add flour mixture and mix well. The dough should be smooth and pliable, but not elastic like bread dough. Let the dough rest for ~10 minutes in the fridge to making shaping cookies easier. Optional: crush peppermint candies (see peppermint mocha cupcake post) and mix with powdered sugar.

4. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on an un-greased cookie sheet. Roll dough in powdered sugar (or peppermint candy dust and powdered sugar). Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cracks form on cookie surface.

5. Let cookies cool and dust with more sugar.