lemon “tea” cookies (with actual tea)

Our lemon tree is seriously overflowing with lemons right now. I keep thinking “I need to make lemon stuff!” and this was just one way to get it done. I pulled 5 lemons off the tree for this recipe – but I really probably only needed 4. They’re kind of extra lemon-y, but since they’re Meyer lemons, they’ve still got a hint of sweetness to them.

pretty-lemon-tea-cookies

I brought in little baggies of cookies for my co-workers with a little note on them:

cookies-with-note

My co-worker, Lauren said, “It’s like a tasty little window of hope in my day” when she tried one of the cookies. Is that a shining  endorsement or what!?

gevalia-lemon-berry-tea

These lemon tea cookies aren’t just a clever title either. You can eat them with tea, but they have actual tea in them, too. I used some Lemon Berry Breeze tea from Gevalia – which is a Lemon Raspberry Tea.

lemon-berry-breeze-bits

The tea comes in tea bags and this is what it looks like poured out of the bag. Many little flecks of tea!

cookie-log

I didn’t do the step-by-step (oooh, baby) photos this time, but here’s the cookie log.

cookie-dough-tea-bits

You can see the specks of the Lemon Berry Breeze tea in the dough! The recipe I used said to chill the dough and then roll it out and cut out cookies. Pfftt. I hate rolling out cookies. I just sliced off pieces from the log – way quicker! You just have to be careful to make them all about the same thickness otherwise you could get a couple of “well baked” ones (yes, I burned a couple of too thin ones. They became dog biscuits).

powdered-sugar-vitamix

I also discovered I had no powdered sugar in the house. Which was weird, since I usually buy powdered sugar when I don’t even need it anymore. I wondered how easy it would be to make my own, and a quick Google search told me that I could make powdered sugar in the Vitamix in about 60 seconds. Using only sugar!

I was disbelieving until I actually tried it – and no joke, it takes about a minute! You just pour 1 cup of sugar into the Vitamix and put the variable to “1” and switch it on – and slowly turn the variable up to “10”. You can then switch it on high for a few seconds but I found that at this point it was already totally powdery. I was instantly in awe and vowed to never buy powdered sugar again.

iced-lemon-tea-cookies

With my homemade powdered sugar in hand, I made a quick glaze with lemon juice and lemon peel. I love how bright the peel is! I started spooning the glaze onto the cookies until I figured out dipping was quicker and more efficient (and results in less glaze all over the damn place).

lemony-tea-cookies-plate

These cookies are crispy, buttery, and chock full of lemon flavor. Next time, I might try emphasizing both flavors in the tea – the lemon and the raspberry – with maybe a raspberry glaze on the cookie. I couldn’t taste the tea all of that much, but all of my co-workers seemed to be able to detect it (though, my sinuses and taste buds were still kind of jacked up from this killer-never-ending virus/cold thing I’ve got going on). I would maybe up the tea a little, too, by adding in any extra bag for extra “oomph”.

Recipe below! Continue reading “lemon “tea” cookies (with actual tea)”