I blame it all on February.
It’s February’s fault I made Lemon Drop Cookies yesterday. Winter is getting a bit old… and I’m craving things that are bright and cheery… be it fabric or food.
This lovely little cookie starts with a bowl of lemon drop candies, but it doesn’t stop there. It also has lemon zest, lemon extract, and lemon juice. They’re pretty much guaranteed to help you shake off the winter doldrums.
Here’s the recipe:
LEMON DROP COOKIES
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 – 1/3 cup sugar
- Zest of one lemon – reserve juice for glaze
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 – 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
- 4 ounces lemon drop candies, crushed
For the glaze:
- 1 – 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix flour, soda, and salt until well blended, set aside. In a separate bowl add sugar and lemon zest. Using your fingers, rub together until well blended and fragrant. Add softened butter and cream together. Blend in eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract. Mix in crushed lemon drop candies. Add flour mixture in batches until mixed in. Do not overmix.
Using a cookie scoop or a spoon drop 1 inch balls onto a greased cookie sheet. Flatten balls slightly with your hand. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes until slightly browned.
Cool and spoon glaze on top. Allow glaze to set up before serving.
Makes 4 dozen cookies.
Click here for the printable recipe from my Tasty Kitchen Recipe Box.
Here’s the play by play:
Crushing lemon drops is therapeutic… it’s not everyday you get to use a hammer in the kitchen. I placed the lemon drops in a plastic bag, placed a dishtowel over the bag and hammered away. I don’t have a kitchen mallet… so a girl’s got to make it do.
Crush them into very small pieces.
Like so. There is still a few chunks. They’ll make the cookies good.
In a medium bowl add the flour, baking soda and the salt. Mix them up well and set aside.
This is the fun part. In a large bowl, add the lemon zest to the sugar and rub together until well blended. It smells so good!
Cream in the butter.
Add the eggs and vanilla and mix them well.
I told you there is A LOT of lemon flavor in these babies. Here comes the lemon extract.
And the lemon drop candies. The bag at the grocery store was 8 ounces. Just use half the bag and there’s no need for a scale. The other half you get to eat… or make more cookies.
I like to add the flour in batches, I get it mixed in before adding more. That way you are less likely to over mix and have tough cookies.
Do you have a cookie scoop? It’s a must have in my book. It makes fast and even work out of scooping cookie dough. You are going to want 1 inch balls. The dough is a little sticky and I did need to rinse out my scoop between sheets.
All you need is your hand to press down the cookies slightly. Do you read Pioneer Woman? Did she say something yesterday about a freaky pink alien claw? Yes I do my own dishes. Why do you ask?
Cook 12 cookies to a sheet, they spread out a bit. Put them into a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 – 12 minutes, until they are slightly golden brown.
While they are cooking, I make the glaze. The juice of one lemon… (about 3 Tablespoons.)
And powdered sugar… approximately 1- 1/2 cups.
When the cookies are cooled. Drizzle on the glaze.
And try hard not to eat the whole plate. I’m not saying I ate a whole plate! But if I did, I could plead that it is February, and there’s lots and lots of lemon goodness in a plate of these lovely cookies. Make ’em today, they’re guaranteed to make you smile.
These sound so good! They would be great treats to bribe my Cub Scout leaders to a planning meeting. Thanks for sharing.
OH YUM! I MUST try these!
Marcie gave me a couple of these a while back, and I immediately fell in love. Now if only my family liked lemon things as much as I do.
Oh Calli- be still my heart! I was just thinking about my sweet grandma and wishing I had something else of hers to share with my girls when I saw this. She always had these candies at her house and would put one in her hot tea. Can’t wait to tell Laura the connection :) no doubt these will be in both our kitchens soon! Thanks for sharing.
Oh my word those look good!! I love anything lemon :0)
I love lemon! It’s my favorite flavor… I’m trying to avoid sweets until I buy a new swim suit, but I think I can make an exception!
These look soooo good! I just made some lemon biscotti and my husband loved them, huge surprise, I must try these on him and see how much he loves them!
DIVINE! I may have to make some of these as lemons seems to be the food I crave this pregnancy!
OMG!! I loooove so much lemon drops! And I love cookies!
I’ll take a note right now and make it tomorrow!!! :D
Thank you sooooo much for the recipe! It seems delicious! =9
Kisses kisses
Those have to be scrumptious….and those crushed candies are so pretty…yellow rocks !!
These look so good, Kay. I’m afraid I’d eat too many lemon drops making the cookies, though. Think I’ll try to make them some day myself.
oh fun! these sound so summer-y! perfect for this end of winter!
Oh i love lemon. my favourite over chocolate!! these look amazing!
Lemon drops have always been one of my favorite candies, what a good idea to put them in cookies.
These do sound good! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Makes one think of warmer times to come. :)
OK. Those look delish! Gotta try those! I LOVE lemon!!
I made these cookie yesterday and they were good. The cookie itself wasn’t lemony, surprisingly, even with all the lemon stuff in it (candy, extract, zest). It just tasted like a sugar cookie. However, the glaze saved it – the glaze made it taste lemony.
I just made these cookies…and while they aren’t very lemony the glaze sure is. It makes the cookie scrumptious.
I first saw this recipe here last week when you posted it(it’s on my list to make as soon as we run out of Girl Scout cookies!! ;), but I was really pleased to see it featured on Tasty Kitchen today!
Oh man, these look AMAZING! We have a friend who is always looking for simple lemon dessert recipes, and this is one we’ll have to share with him! Thanks!
1st. off I love lemon drops, 2nd I love lemon juice, 3rd this recipe is too good to resist. Will make these this week. Thanks for the tangy recipe.
These are wonderful cookies! I have made them numerous times now and the one thing that I do change that I love is adding lemon zest to the glaze as well. Love it! Thanks for the recipe!