Lemon Chewies with Honey

I am back with another cookie post! It is hard not to bake something when all the ingredients are here and the instructions are so simple. There are no reasons why I should not be eating these cookies, especially if they were recommended to me by my colleague, Monique.

I woke up this morning and flipped open The Cookiepedia (for your chance to win a copy, click here). I took the butter and egg out to reach room temperature as I had breakfast. And just so you know, you can make these and eat them before lunch time, they are that easy!
Finished eating breakfast? Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F).

In your mixing bowl, add 1 stick (1/2 cup) of unsalted butter.

Then pour in 1/2 cup of sugar.

Cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest, mix until incorporated into the butter and sugar mixture.

In a measuring cup, pour in 1/3 cup of honey. Crack an egg and add it with the honey. Use a spoon to stir them together until they are combined. I've never mixed honey with egg before either, but don't worry, it works! Add this to the butter mixture and beat until incorporated.

Add 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt to the mixture. Mix until the dough comes together, then add 1 more cup of all-purpose flour. Blend until the batter looks smooth.

You can either lightly grease a cookie sheet, use parchment paper, or a silicone mat. Scoop up the batter with your hands and gently roll them into little balls. Flatten them slightly and place them about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are set and the bottoms are a golden brown.

While the cookies are cooling, make an easy glaze. Mix 1/2 cup of powdered sugar with 1/2 tablespoon of water. Mix until a glaze starts to form, if the mixture is not runny enough, add more water, a 1/2 teaspoon at a time. If your glaze is too runny, add more powdered sugar. You'll know when you have the right consistency for drizzling over the cookies.

Go on, this is the fun part. The icing doesn't have to look neat, just zig-zag over the lemon chewies.

That was fun wasn't it? Pop these pillowy cookies in your mouth, you can really taste a hint of lemon and honey flavours! I'd want to up the lemon flavours next time, maybe a squeeze of juice or more lemon zest. I'd also have to use regular honey, my wildflower honey may have overpowered it!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve or Merry Christmas depending where you are! To get into a little creative mood, I made green tea Christmas tree cookies for our families.

Green Tea Cookies

Adapted from The Cookiepedia: Mixing, Baking, and Reinventing the Classics

(Makes about 18 Christmas tree cookies)

3/4 cup of powdered sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of matcha powder

1/2 cup of unsalted butter

3 egg yolks

1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour

A pinch of salt

1. Gently mix the powdered sugar and matcha powder together.
2. Add in the butter and beat it all together until smooth. It'll look like spinach green icing!
3. Add in the egg yolks and beat until incorporated, scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Pour in a third of the flour at a time. It will take a minute or so for the flour to absorb into the dough. Also add in the pinch of salt and mix. Make sure that there are no dry or crumbly sections in the dough.
5. Flatten the dough into a disk and plastic wrap it. Seal it up and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
6. Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
7. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out to about 1/2-inch thick. Cut out shapes with your preferred cookie cutter. Set them on a parchment sheet or silicone mat.
8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until you see the edges start to turn lightly golden. Cool before decorating.

You can eat the cookies as they are, but if you want to dress them up like sugar cookies, you'll need to make some royal icing.

Green Tea Royal Icing

(Makes enough to line and flood 18 Christmas tree cookies)

1 1/2 tablespoon of meringue powder

2 cups of powdered sugar

1 tablespoon of matcha powder

2 1/2 tablespoons of water

1. Beat all the ingredients together until icing forms peaks. I would recommend using a clean and grease free stand mixer. You can add more green colour if you like, but I found the light green from the matcha powder to be sufficient.
2. This is your stiff consistency, have your piping bag and tip ready, fill about a handful of royal icing into the bag.
3. Pipe along the edges of your cookies, refill if necessary. Add any remaining icing back to the batch.
4. To thin out the royal icing for flooding, keep adding 1 teaspoon of water until you reach the proper consistency.
5. Using the same piping bag and tip, carefully fill it with the thinner icing and pipe them onto the cookie. By now, the edges should have hardened enough to stay as a border. Decorate as you see fit!

Use clean toothpicks for correcting, if you need to slightly shift a line or pop an air bubble. I clearly need to work on my cookie piping skills.

I really like the look of the simple hollies on the tree.

I have an extra copy of Stacy Adimando and Tara Striano's The Cookiepedia: Mixing, Baking, and Reinventing the Classics. Would you like to win it? Our Christmas gift to one lucky winner!

Giveaway Regulations and Conditions: 

• The Cookiepedia Giveaway is open from Saturday, December 24, 2011 to Sunday, January 8, 2012. Entries submitted after 12 midnight EST on Sunday, January 8, 2012 will not be considered. 
• There are three ways to enter, post in the comment section below or on A Baked Creation's facebook page: I could eat ______________ cookies all year long. (Fill in the blank with your favourite cookie.) 
• To enter via twitter, tweet: @abakedcreation I could eat ______________ cookies all year long. (Fill in the blank with your favourite cookie.)
• Please leave a way for us to contact you (via e-mail, twitter handle).
• The winner will be randomly chosen and announced here on A Baked Creation on Monday, January 10, 2012. 
• The winner will have 7 days to claim their prize. If we do not get a mailing address, the prize is forfeited.
• This contest is available to residents of Canada and the U.S.A. only! However, if you have friends and family with a Canadian or American mailing address, feel free to enter. There will be four different winners, one for each book.
• Disclaimer: My copy and the giveaway copy of The Cookiepedia was not sent to us by the publisher.
• UPDATE: A winner has been chosen! Congratulations to SweetThingsTO who said, "I could eat chocolate peanut butter cookies all year long... or anything chocolate peanut butter actually..."