This idea came to me from a series of insignificant coincidences that formed a dream. California lemons in the fridge, a lemon bar from the Birchwood at the 2 x 2 lecture series with the folks from Locus Architecture, a cookie craving and coriander. I woke up the other day, with the perfect lemon spice cookie recipe floating around in my head.
I knew I would base the recipe on my favorite chewy gingersnap recipe from The Joy of Cooking, but with lemony spices instead of molasses and cloves. I would use lemon zest, lemon grass, ground coriander and ground ginger. To lighten the color of the cookie, I replaced the molasses with honey. I was hoping for the crinkle effect of a gingersnap, but for some scientific reason, that did not occur. Does anyone know why not? I used baking soda and vinegar…does the chemical reaction needed to make cracks involve molasses?
I’ll include the original gingersnap recipe below as well. If you love chewy cookies, it’s an amazing recipe.
Ingredients:
Makes 4 dozen cookies
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 tsp. white vinegar
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- zest 1 lemon
- juice 1 lemon
- 1 Tbs. finely pureed lemon grass (I used Gourmet Garden Lemon Grass prepared product)
- 2 tsp. ground coriander
- 2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Directions:
Preheat oven 325 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add all the other ingredients except the flour and mix well using a hand or stand mixer. The last step is to add the flour and mix together well.
Form dough into 1-inch balls. Bake on a cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes. When the cookies cool, cover them with sifted powdered sugar.
Gingersnaps from the Joy of Cooking
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Cream together:
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
Stir in:
- 2 well-beaten eggs
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 tsp. vinegar
Sift and add:
- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 to 3 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. cloves
Mix ingredients until blended. Form dough into 3/4 inch balls. Roll the balls in sugar. Bake on a greased cookie sheet about 12-15 minutes.
