Today I realized it's summer. Full blown summer. Grills are blazing, cars are AC-ing, and the sun comes up at 5am. It's awesome. I love the beach, the water, and just being outdoors. Do you ever feel like everyone is in a better mood time time of year? There's a greater sense of forgiveness and helping each other out. Care to give me a hand with this grand piano? Sure buddy, I don't mind, the sun is shining.
So onto summer time fruit and summer time goodness. I always think of strawberries as an early summer fruit, and sugar cookies are my favorite. So here is my version of a summer cookie, and it won't even totally kill your bathing suit aspirations. I cut a few corners here and there, and you'll miss them about as much as those last 5 pounds.
Lemon Sugar Cookies & Strawberry Frosting
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated
Makes about 2 dozen
For the Cookies:
¾ cup AP flour
½ cup cake flour
1 cup sugar
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
1 cup Frozen or Fresh Strawberries, mashed and drained
Splash of vanilla extract
1-2 cups powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 375*, and place oven rack in the middle position. Get two ungreased cookie sheets ready.
In a medium bowl, measure and add the AP flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir until evenly distributed.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, until pale yellow and fluffy. Add the egg, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in two batches, stirring well until a very soft, uniform, sticky dough forms.
Roll dough into small balls with your hands, about the size of a tablespoon, and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Place in the oven and bake at 375* for 9-12 minutes. Do not over bake these or they will get really crunchy and crumbly. Cool in pans for a few minutes, and then cool completely on wire racks.
For the Frosting:
Place the strawberries in a fine strainer over a large bowl. Sprinkle the strawberries with sugar and mash them slightly. This will extract the juice from them. Let sit for 30 minutes. Once you have collected some juice, take a tablespoon or two and pour into a small bowl. Add the splash of vanilla extract, and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add sugar by heaping tablespoons and mix evenly. Keep adding more sugar until the mixture thinkens up, and you’ll be able to spread it onto the cookies. If it is too glazy or loose, just keep adding sugar slowly.
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