So it's official — I'm back to baking. I don't know if it was all of the cakes and cookies that I was assigned to bake for Christmas, but my body had been rejecting sugar for the latter part of my winter break. But don't fret! My sweet tooth has returned and I'm back to craving sugar 24/7.
This weekend, I decided to take my new KitchenAid mixer out for a spin and oh my god.... I'm pretty sure this mixer is the best thing to happen to me — a milestone of sorts in my quest to obtain the title of Mr. Betty Crocker. No but really, the 7 quart bowl is SO big and I can finally make double batches of cookies without the dough spilling out over the sides. It's also so much quieter than my sad, broken mixer that sounded alarmingly similar to a jackhammer.
The first thing I decided to bake with it? Lemon Cookies and Cream Cookies. These cookies were born out of my obsession with Pinkberry's lemon cookie crunch. (If any of you have ever had that, you know how good it is!) I found myself craving the flavor one day, so I decided to play around with one of my favorite recipes and create something amazing; and amazing it is.
These cookies have a cream cheese base that gives the cookies an amazingly soft texture and are chock full of lemon sandwich cookies and lemon extract. After rolling the dough — which is out of this world good I must add; it's literally lethal — in sugar, I baked the mounds of deliciousness and added a square of white chocolate to each piece right after coming out of the oven. Perfect.
Lemon Cookies and Cream Cookies
(adapted from this)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 tsp. lemon extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 cups coarsely chopped lemon sandwich cookies
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- white chocolate squares (about 24)
Preheat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and egg, mixing for 3 minutes more. Mix in the vanilla. Add all of the dry ingredients and combines. Fold in the chopped cookies and white chocolate chips.
Roll the cookie dough into balls, then roll them in sugar, and place them on your prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, do not overbake. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, place a square of white chocolate onto each cookie.