the fire rained down on your parade...

I spent this afternoon trying to develop cookies inspired by the mighty skygod, MJN Air’s First Officer Douglas Richardson. I think I did pretty darn well with it. Because of his infamous citrus pocket, and his preference to keep lemons there rather than any other kind of citrus, naturally I thought these should have a slight lemon flavor, but still be classy and not overly sweet.

I modified a very simple sugar cookie recipe to my own taste, and created icing for the cookies using The Lemon Is In Play tea by Cara McGee. The result is something flavourful, well rounded, and unique! Here is my recipe. =) (I’m terrible at naming things, forgive me!)

Douglas Richardson’s LemonTea Cookies

• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup
• 1 egg
• 2 medium sized lemons
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl and set aside.

Roll lemons around in hand or on counter top to loosen the juice inside. Cut each lemon into fours, and squeeze lemons into a bowl, setting the resulting juice aside.

Cream sugar, oil, corn syrup, vanilla extract and egg in large bowl. When the mixture is almost completely creamed, add the lemon juice, being sure to use a strainer or your hands so pulp and seeds don’t get in. Continue creaming mixture until fully blended.

Gradually add dry mixture into wet mixture until a creamy dough is made. Cover, then refrigerate for minimum of an hour until dough is thick and malleable.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Use a tablespoon to scoop out balls of dough, then roll around in hand to make a ball. Flatten slightly. Place on cookie sheet about an inch apart from each other, and leave in oven for 8-10 minutes.

Now time to make the icing!!

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp finely ground The Lemon Is In Play tea leaves
  
• 3 tbsp brewed The Lemon Is In Play tea

I used a knife to chop up the tea leaves because I wanted to have the texture there, but if that scares you, you can always use a little spice grinder to make it into finer powder. It will work either way! Mix the sugar and tea leaves together well first, then add the brewed liquid tea one tablespoon at a time to get the icing to the consistency you want.

To maximise the flavour, I actually brewed the tea before I started making the dough, and let it sit and cool until I was ready to start the actual baking.

Once the cookies are cool, spread the icing on top with a butterknife, set in the fridge for about ten minutes to allow the icing to harden a bit, and then enjoy! (They go really well with tea! *wink wink, nudge nudge*)

I thought the cookies were freaking adorable when I first saw them after they finished baking, so I had to take a pic of them without icing too. =)

This is my first time developing my own cookies, so congrats to Douglas Richardson for being my first inspiration to create my own recipe, simple though it may be. =)