Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Friday in the Bay Area yielded our first storm of the winter season. Another one is expected today, which is extremely good news. The hope is that the rest of winter brings many rain showers along with snow in the Sierras. It would mean the chance of drought during our summer months would be insignificant. We actually have had to run our sprinklers since the lawn was beginning to turn brown and crunchy. The goal is to keep the sprinklers turned off and let mother natures sprinklers run.

With a slight break in the rain yesterday, hubby and I decided to remove the leaves from the gutters to allow for the trapped water to drain. We have a beautiful hundred year old walnut tree in our backyard that produces a significant amount of leaves during the fall that cover the ground and gutters. It is a regal and striking tree but extremely high maintenance. After completing our homeowner task, I jumped on the treadmill and hubby for a bike ride.

Once energized from the treadmill and with rather grey and drab skies, I decided to bake cookies. Not sure what it is about baking, but for me it is just plain comforting - from laying all of the ingredients out on the counter to the mixing of the dough to tasting the final product. {Of course, tasting the raw cookie dough is half the pleasure for me – how about you?}

I had pinned this Lemon Crinkle Cookie recipe some time ago, in hopes of making in the future. Today was that day. Laura Brennan has her own food blog and this was a winning recipe from a contest she participated in. After tasting, I completely agree why the judges awarded her the grand prize. By the way, it is hard to eat just one – trust me.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cups Butter, softened
1 C. Sugar
1 t. Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
2 T. Lemon Zest
1 T. Fresh Lemon Juice
¼ t. Salt
¼ t. Baking Powder
⅛ t. Baking Soda
1 ½ C. Flour
½ C. Powdered Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip 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 into a medium bowl. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and press lightly to flatten slightly and repeat with remaining dough. I used a one inch diameter ice cream scoop.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. I found 10 minutes was perfect. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Makes between 2 and 3 dozen cookies depending on the size.

Recipe slightly adapted from Laura Brennan