Today
is the first full day of Spring and next Sunday is Easter! What better way to
start the new season than with a tasty new lemon cookie recipe? These would be
a lovely addition to any Easter basket or dessert table! To be honest, these
are great any time of year!
When
I first came up with the idea for this recipe, I assumed that I'd find several
similar ones online already. Well, not quite. I found many lemon cookie recipes
and many cream cheese cookie recipes. I even found a few lemon cream cheese
cookie recipes. The problem was that none of them really seemed to have
everything I wanted and never enough lemon flavour! I've played with enough
lemon recipes while baking to know that what looks like a lot of lemon in a
recipe doesn't always translate to the flavour in the finished product.
So what to do?
So what to do?
After
reading several recipes, I actually ended up sort of combining three recipes
with a few extra additions!
I
already had a great Lemon Pudding Cookie recipe. I also took inspiration from a
Lemon Cheesecake Cookie and a Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I
compared ingredients and quantities and came up with a beginning version to
play with.
After
that, it would just be a matter of testing out various quantities till I got
what I wanted!
The
first time I made them, the dough was far too sticky! I should have just added
a bit more flour but I wanted to see if chilling the dough would improve the
consistency. BIG MISTAKE! After chilling, the dough was like glue! It was a
royal pain to even drop by spoonful onto the pans! Working with that dough
wasn't easy even for a fairly experienced baker like myself! The baked taste
was good but could definitely be improved.
Lesson
learned! The second time, I added a bit more flour and a smidgen more lemon
juice. I also added more chocolate chips!
The
results were exactly what I had been imagining when I first started searching!
A soft and slightly chewy cookie bursting with lemon flavour and loaded with
chocolate goodness!
Happy
Spring and Happy Easter!
Lemon
Cream Cheese Chippers
1
99g (4 serving) lemon instant pudding mix
1
teaspoon baking powder
1/2
teaspoon salt
1 large
(or 2 small) lemons (You will need the zest and 3 Tablespoons lemon juice)
1
cup granulated sugar
3/4
cup packed light brown sugar
1/2
cup block margarine, softened
8
ounces cream cheese, softened
2
large eggs, at room temperature
1
teaspoons vanilla extract
1
teaspoon lemon extract
2
1/4 cups dark or semisweet chocolate chips
Combine the flour, instant pudding mix, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Zest
the lemon and set aside. Juice the lemon. Set aside.
Place
the white sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the lemon zest. Using your
fingertips, rub the zest and sugar together. This releases the oil from the
zest and infuses it into the sugar for a more lemony flavour!
Add
the brown sugar, margarine and cream cheese, Beat on low speed to combine then
increase speed a bit to get the batter nice and creamy. Add the eggs and mix
well. Add the vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon juice. Mix in
thoroughly.
Add
the flour mixture and combine thoroughly. Add the chocolate chips and mix in.
Batter will be quite soft and sticky.
DO
NOT CHHILL OR FREEZE THE RAW DOUGH!! That will make it even
harder to work with.
Drop
by teaspoons about 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Flatten
slightly as the cookies spread very little while baking.
Makes
about 7 1/2 dozen yummy cookies! These do freeze well.
Enjoy!
dn
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