Lemon, Thyme, Almond Sugar Cookies

I'm going to say something very anti-American, and probably even anti-Southern: I don't like lemonade. I just don't. It doesn't do anything for me. Nor do I like lemon in my sweet tea... see, I'm not a complete loss as a Southern gal; I do like sweet tea. Just don't put lemon it it or my water glass, and we'll get along just fine. Here's the catch though... I LOVE lemon in baking and cooking. I'm addicted to any lemon cookie or cake imaginable. 

Now to switch gears here, I also love watching the baking and cooking shows, and after watching enough of them talk about how they incorporate a challenge ingredient into a recipe they already have, I thought, "I bet I can do that too." So, I did. I used my Sugar Cookies recipe (courtesy of Betty Crocker) and made it unrecognizable, but dang, are they good. I replaced some of the flour with almond meal, which creates a wonderful texture for these cookies. I used lemon zest and thyme in the cookies, which created an amazing flavor. Top that with the texture of sliced almonds in the cookie plus a delicious lemon glaze and sugared lemon zest, and oh my. This really isn't a difficult recipe, and would be a good starter recipe for you.

Cookies
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2-3 lemons (zest and juice, separated)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup almond meal
1 tsp ground thyme
1/2 tsp thyme leaves, plus a little more for decoration
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup diced almond slices, plus a a few more for decorations

Glaze
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar for glaze
1/2 tsp almond extract

In a small bowl combine the flour, almond meal, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and thyme. Whisk gently until mixed.

Chop the almonds until they're the size you want. The cookies are thinner because they're sugar cookies, so you don't want the almonds pieces to be too large.

Zest and juice the lemons. Put a couple of teaspoons in a separate bowl with a pinch of sugar - start with a couple teaspoons. "Fluff" the sugar and zest together to coat it. Keep adding sugar to this during the making and baking of the cookies until the zest is crystalized and drier and doesn't look like it will take any more sugar.

In your stand mixer add the butter, powdered sugar, egg, vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon zest and about a teaspoon of lemon juice. 

With the paddle attachment, combine ingredients until smooth. Fold in dry ingredients.

Mix in almonds  until spread throughout evenly.

Wrap dough in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for three hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle flour lightly on your surface, and then roll out dough to 3/16" thickness. Cut to desired shapes - I used a round with scalloped edges.

Bake cookies 7-8 minutes or until edges just begin to brown. Rest cookies for at least 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack until they are cool and set firm.

Create glaze by combining powdered sugar, almond extract and enough lemon juice to reach a nice thick glaze. You want the glaze thick enough to adhere to the cookie without running off too much. Dip each cookie into the glaze and then let it rest on a piece of parchment.

I set up an assembly line of dried thyme leaves, sugared lemon zest, almonds, and I added a little crystal sugar decoration to give a little extra crunch and shine to the cookies. Sprinkle on just a few thyme leaves, as much sugared lemon zest as you prefer, and a design with the almonds to your liking.

Allow cookies to rest on parchment until dry and hardened before putting in a container. But enjoy one or two as soon as possible because these are amazing!

If you give this recipe a chance, please let me know how it worked for you!

Baklava

Bakalava. Flaky patry. Slightly sweetened cinnamon-y nut filling, sweet honey drizzle. There's just not much better than baklava. That's why I decided I wanted to find a good recipe and try making it from scratch. I did a good bit of research and learned quite a bit about this delicacy. While most of us probably think of Greek cuisine, baklava, in fact, originated in the Ottoman Empire, and the word itself is Arabic. The variations found in baklava will indicate where the recipe originated. I won't go into all the history, but which nuts are used, what is used to create the syrup all indicate the region of origin. I finally settled on this recipe: Easy Baklava. I liked the idea of using various nuts, so I went with a mixture of walnuts, pecans, almonds, and hazelnuts. I always imagined baklava was very difficult to make, and I've always heard about how hard it is to work with phyllo dough. Honestly, while this was a bit time consuming (to do it right anyway), it really was rather easy!

Pastry

1 lb mixed nuts, chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
16 oz package phyllo dough
1 cup butter, melted

Syrup

1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1⁄2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest, grated

To ensure a smooth process, make sure you have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Toss together cinnamon and nuts. Unroll phyllo and cut whole stack in half to fit the dish, if needed. The dough I got was already cut for a 9X13. Cover phyllo with a damp cloth while assembling the baklava, to keep it from drying out.

Place two sheets of phyllo in the bottom of the prepared dish. Brush generously with butter. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of the nut mixture on top. 

Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, ending with about 6 sheets of phyllo. 

Using a sharp knife, cut baklava into desired shapes. I had a little trouble with this part, I think, because I buttered the top layer before cutting. The phyllo kept sticking to my knife. Lesson learned. :-)

Bake in preheated oven 50 minutes, until golden and crisp. While baklava is baking, combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. 

Stir in honey, vanilla and lemon zest, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Remove the baklava from the oven and immediately spoon the syrup over it. 

Let cool completely before serving. I ended up adding just a bit extra honey to the baklava before serving. Just added a little bit more oomph to it. Store in an airtight container.

Lemon-Zucchini-Almond Bread

I think I may be in love. And it's not something I ever expected to love... lemon zest! I've never been a lemon fan. I don't like lemonade. I've never used lemon on anything. Ok, I do like the little sweet lemon drop hard candies, but that is it. This recipe is AMAZING. And to top off its amazing yumminess, you also get a little vegetable and some nut protein in each luscious bite! Woohoo! Now that's a win in my book. lol I found this recipe on Pinterest, and a previous bread I made, Lemon Almond Bread, was so good, that I decided to give this one a shot. It's called Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread. The bread is really flavorful; the zucchini adds some depth to it; the almonds add a bit of texture; and the glaze is out of this world. I adapted the recipe just a little bit, but I can't give you a comparison because I never tried the original. Read them both if you so desire, and take your pick! You'll probably notice that the pictures don't look like the same thing, and it's actually not. I made a loaf of this last weekend to try it. Today, I doubled the recipe so that I could make more so that I could take it work tomorrow. It made a little more than I anticipated, so I ended up with a 9X13, a mini-loaf pan full, and a small loaf as well. Following is the single loaf recipe.

2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup buttermilk ***
2 Tbsp lemon zest
1 cup grated zucchini

1/2 cup almonds, plus a Tbsp or so for garnishing

Glaze ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
2.5-3 Tbsp lemon juice

1-2 tsp lemon zest

First prep your fresh ingredients - grate the zucchini and zest and juice the lemons. The original poster left the peel on her zucchini. I think it would have been nice for the color, but I have a picky eater, and it's much easier to hide the zucchini with the green removed.

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Then add oil and sugar until well blended. 

Add lemon juice, buttermilk, and lemon zest to this mixture and blend all together.

*** Note, if you don't have buttermilk, you can make a substitute by using 1 Tbsp lemon juice and adding enough milk to reach the one cup line. Then use however much you need.

Fold in zucchini until it is mixed well. 

Add dry mixture to the wet mixture and blend all together until well combined.

Add almonds and mix well. Pour batter into greased 9x5 loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. 

The original says to glaze the bread while it's still warm. I didn't want the heat of the bread to melt the glaze, so I let mine cool first. To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest until combined.

Carefully spoon glaze over bread. Garnish with a bit of zest and a few almonds. Your mouth should be watering at this point to try it, so go ahead and give it a taste!

Lemon Almond Bread

This bread is O.M.G. good. I'm not a big lemon fan... I don't use it in my tea. I don't drink lemonade. This bread though, was light and sweet and full of amazing flavor. I found the recipe through Pinterest (surprised?), and you can find the original post here: Lemon Almond Bread by Nancy Creative. This one is definitely a keeper. Here you go!

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all–purpose flour (I like to use unbleached flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon extract
1-2 Tbsp grated lemon peel (the more you use, the more lemony the flavor)
1 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

Add eggs and mix well. 

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Blend in lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon peel; then fold in almonds.

Spoon batter into the greased and floured loaf pan; bake at 350 degrees for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.

LEMON–SUGAR DRIZZLE

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

While loaf is cooling, mix the lemon juice and sugar together for the Lemon-Sugar drizzle; mix until sugar is dissolved (you can heat the mixture up in the microwave for about 10 seconds to help dissolve the sugar more quickly). After removing loaf from pan and while still warm, drizzle the lemon–sugar mixture over the top of the loaf and let cool completely.

LEMON GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/8–1/4 cup sliced almonds

Blend powdered sugar and melted butter together; then add lemon juice and mix until well blended. Spoon glaze over cooled loaf; then sprinkle with sliced almonds. Let glaze set, and then reward your baking efforts with a nice thick slice of lemony sweetness!