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.

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

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!?

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.

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

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

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).

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.

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).

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!

Lemon Tea Cookies
Adapted from One Perfect Bite

2/3 cup butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
1-2 tea bags, Gevalia Lemon Berry Breeze
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Lemon Glaze

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Beat butter in a mixing bowl until nice and smooth. Add lemon zest and beat again until incorporated and lemony-smelling. Add tea in and mix well. Add sugar and cream well – for about 2-3 minutes until fluffy. Add in egg and beat until the dough starts to come together in a magical way. Slowly add in part of the flour and mix well, then add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Gradually add more flour again, mix, and then add in more lemon juice until all flour and lemon juice are combined into the dough.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll the dough into a log with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes. Remove from the fridge and cut dough into slices, about 1/8 inch thick. Keep slices uniform!

Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.

Make lemon glaze by combining the confectioner’s sugar, lemon juice and zest. If too thick, add more lemon juice – or if too thin, add more powdered sugar. Can’t go wrong! Dip cooled cookies into the glaze and let them set until the glaze hardens. Store in an airtight container and try to resist to eat them all in one sitting.

* Disclaimer: I received complimentary boxes of Gevalia tea. I was not paid to use the tea or feature it in a recipe. All opinions and ideas are my own.