The Barefoot Kitchen Witch: Lemon Sugar Bites

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Lemon Sugar Bites

I needed to make some sort of desserty thing to bring to the party on Saturday, and I was going to do something fancy but ran out of time. I'd made a big batch of short dough, some of which I used for last Thursday night to make little guitars and musical notes.

But I still had a lot of it left. I was going to make other cut-out cookies and decorate some and let the kids decorate others, but like I said, I ran out of time.

So here's what we did.

I took the zest of one lemon, and about a cup of granulated sugar...put them in the food processor and buzzed them around til the zest was chopped up pretty fine and incorporated into the sugar.

Then I took pieces of the dough, rolled it into little balls (about the size of...hmm...smaller than a ping pong ball), then rolled the dough balls in the lemon zest/sugar mixture, put them on a parchment lined baking sheet, and pressed down to flatten somewhat. Maybe to about a third of an inch thick or so. I baked them in a 350 degree oven until just starting to turn golden around the edges. Once cooled, the outsides were sugary-crisp with the tang of lemon, and the insides were buttery and ever so slightly soft.

Nothing fancy about them at all.

They just taste good.

Posted on May 15, 2008 in In the Cookie Jar | Permalink

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Comments

I sure hope Louise approves...

Posted by:frotoe | May 15, 2008 at 06:06 AM

hahahahahahaha

Posted by:Jayne | May 15, 2008 at 07:08 AM

Those look amazing!

Posted by:Dianne | May 15, 2008 at 09:48 AM

they sure look like it's got a great bite to it! love that glittery look it's got. yummy.
also, those buttered crumpets on your blog header are divine.

Posted by:diva@theSugarBar | May 15, 2008 at 03:31 PM

I think I've created a TasteSpotting monster!

Posted by:Donna | May 15, 2008 at 04:03 PM

Ohhhh!! I think I could eat a lot of these.

Posted by:EAT! | May 15, 2008 at 10:34 PM

Books of Food and Cooking

Theodora FitzGibbon: A taste of London: Traditional food
Recipe mentioned: Crumpets. A bit of my history: Like "Great British Cooking" below, this belonged to my late grandmother. I like this book because of all the old photos interwoven with the traditional recipes. I also liked the flavor of this crumpet recipe better than the one in "Great British Cooking" - but I can't really say which recipe is more authentic, since I don't have firsthand knowledge of how a crumpet is REALLY supposed to taste. (***)
Jane Garmey: Great British Cooking: Wellkept Secret, A
Recipe mentioned: Crumpets. A bit of my history: this originally belonged to my mom's mother. It's interesting to me that she had cookbooks about British cooking, as she was born and raised in London, and wouldn't she just KNOW how to cook like a Brit? And of course that's a totally ridiculous assumption, as people aren't just born knowing how to cook their native cuisine. Anyway, I've also made the Yorkshire pudding from this book, and it's just as good as the recipe my grandmother and mother had/have used all these years. So that's something. (***)
Dorie Greenspan: Baking: From My Home to Yours
Recipe mentioned: As of today (4/10/08), only the Most Extraodinary Lemon Cream Tart. A bit of my history: Actually, more like the future - I've joined the group Tuesdays with Dorie - and so just about every Tuesday you can expect to see another recipe from this book. I've got a separate recipe category just for those posts, too. This is gonna be fun! (*****)
George Greenstein: Secrets of a Jewish Baker: Authentic Jewish Rye and Other Breads
Recipe Mentioned: Potato Rye Bread with Onion and Caraway. A bit of my history: I bought this book years ago, when I was in the midst of either a breadmaking frenzy or a Judaism frenzy - or probably both at the same time. Though I messed up the posted recipe when I made it recently, I've baked plenty of other things from this book which have turned out fine. Clearly the problem with the Rye bread was mine and mine alone! (*****)
Charmaine Solomon: The Complete Asian Cookbook
Recipes mentioned: Mutton Kari (Lamb Curry), Garam Masala. A bit of my history: I think we bought the hardcover version of this as a bargain book. It's a huge treasure trove of all dishes Asian. So much to explore...so little time. (*****)
Lynne Rossetto Kasper: The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens
Recipe mentioned: Apricot-Pistachio Pockets (Ravioli Dolci). A bit of my history: I have two of Ms. Kasper's books - this and her huge success - "The Splendid Table." I may have said this before, but I think somewhere in my soul there's some Italian in me. Something about the food resonates with me. I can't explain it - but there it is. (*****)
Janice A. Wilke (editor): For Days of Auld Lang Syne
Sorry - you won't find this one anywhere. I have the only copy. Before I got married, my mother compiled recipes provided by family and friends on both Bill's side and my side of our soon-to-be-joined families. The result is a cornucopia of familiar and new recipes for everything from my sister's Cinnamon Toast to Lemon Sponge Pie, to a couple of Bill's mom's German Christmas cookies. The book is a treasure trove of ideas, and clearly a labor of love. (*****)
Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine: The Best Recipe
Recipe mentioned: American Pie Dough for Fruit Pies. A bit of my history: Our friend John gave this to me for Christmas in 2002. Inside he wrote "Jayne, I'm not quite sure this will help, as you are already the best cook..." A very kind and flattering inscription indeed. Anything produced by the Cooks Illustrated people is gold. I love their trial and error approach to finding these "Best Recipes" - and the explanation of what they did, what happened, and what ultimately worked best. (*****)
Bernard Clayton: Bernard Claytons New Complete Book of Breads
Recipe mentioned: Royal Hibernian Brown Loaf. A bit of my history: I bought this years ago while I was on a bread baking kick. Not really a kick. A reunion. Mr. Clayton's tome is 724 pages of recipes and tips and history and background and culture and back story - not including the index. The chapters and the recipes they contain are well organized and easy to follow, easy to understand, and inspiring. (*****)
Brinna B. Sands: The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook/Dedicated to the Pure Joy of Baking
Recipe mentioned: Irish Whiskey Soda Bread. A bit of my history: It's not so much a history as it is an everyday facet of my life. Not the book, specifically, but King Arthur Flour. Never Bleached, Never Bromated. I don't think I've ever bought any flour other than King Arthur, unless it was a less-popular kind of flour purchased from a small, organic mill. I receive the King Arthur flour catalog year-round. It's where I buy my 100-pack of half-sheet-pan sized parchment paper. I've been to their retail store in VT. I attended a bread baking seminar they sponsored years ago - with my mother and Bill's mother. King Arthur flour runs in my veins. Okay, not really. They'd be really clogged if that was happening. Anyway. I've made some of the muffin recipes in this book, probably a quick bread or two, and who knows what else. Everything has come out great. It's a huge book, very friendly in tone, and filled to overflowing. (*****)
Alice Benjamin and Harriett Corrigan: Cooking with Conscience
Recipe Mentioned: A Mess of Pottage. A bit of my history: I think this was my mother's book originally and somehow I ended up with it. Published in 1975, the subtitle is "A book for people concerned about world hunger." So it's vegetarian and healthy and socially conscious. I need to go through this book again and try out some of the other recipes - I've only ever made the "mess of pottage." (****)
Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck: Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Volume 1)
Recipe mentioned: Leek and Potato Soup. A bit of my history: As I've mentioned elsewhere in this blog, I grew up watching Julia Child on PBS and she and my mother were my two biggest food influences growing up. Julia was like family, somehow. She was a regular person who goofed up now and then and could laugh about it. Her fearlessness and sense of humor appealed to me tremendously (and still do) and that, combined with my mother's cooking and adventurousness in the kitchen were a flesh and blood example of Julia's message, I think. I also love cooking shows that are in the Julia tradition. Programs that teach by example. Chefs and cooks who are passionate about food and can convey that effectively, so that you are ready to rush out and buy ingredients and try that recipe right away. That, I think, is part of Julia Child's legacy. She rocked. (*****)
Howard Early: Fast Breads (Crossing Press Specialty Cookbooks.)
Recipe mentioned: Quick Onion Flat Bread. A bit of my history: I bought this book many years ago when I was obsessively buying bread books of every kind. I lived in a cockroachy apartment outside of Boston and had a tiny kitchen with a half inch of counter space, but I managed to bake a few things anyway. (***)