In Like a Lion with Delectable Cookies

Spring has sprung, essentially in Los Angeles it sprung sometime in February. This isn’t the best news for our current drought conditions but that is part of life on the West Coast. March was definitely ready to end for us being a bit of a beast of a month that included a car accident (no one hurt thankfully), a small room renovation (revealing soon) and to finish it all off on the day of fools, a lovely bone fracture in the foot (yep, mine). April couldn’t come soon enough!

April is usually a month of celebration for us being full of Birthdays, an Anniversary, and Spring Break! We thought we’d start it off this month with a delicious recipe for Sugar Cookies to celebrate Easter. Our friend Denise El-Hoss, which we’ll be talking to in an upcoming feature, found this favorite, not over the top ‘sweet’, cookie recipe and shared with us. While a little more practice needs to happen with the natural dyed icing topping, it’s still a darn delicious goody for the taste buds.

This recipe was adapted from a larger 8 to 12 dozen version yielding slightly down to 4 to 6 dozen, depending on thickness.

1 ½ Cups unsalted Butter, at room temperature for a least an hour

3 ounces of Cream Cheese, at room temperature

1 ½ Cups granulated Sugar

2 Medium Eggs

½ tsp. Vanilla Extract

½ tsp. of Almond Extract (or if allergies to nuts, sub 1 tsp. of Vanilla)

1 tsp. of Lemon Zest

4 ½ Cups of Flour

2 ¼ tsps. of Baking Powder

¾ tsp. of Salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar. Beat for several minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and extracts along with the lemon zest.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to the butter/sugar mixture until fully incorporated and a soft dough is formed.

At this point the dough can, and should be, chilled or frozen. If making cookies in the near future, divide the dough into 2 balls and roll each out to ¼ or 1/8 inch thickness between large pieces of parchment paper. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Or you could freeze the dough balls, wrapped in plastic wrap and inside a freezer bag for up to one month. To thaw, leave in refrigerator overnight then proceed with the recipe.

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare baking sheets by lining them with either parchment or a Silpat. Cut cookies out of the rolled dough and place on prepared baking sheets.

Bake cookies for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on thickness. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet then remove to a wire rack.

Cool completely before icing or decorating and store in a tightly covered container.