Lemonade Cookies
Lemonade Cookies
These are a perfect summertime cookie. With the sweet tangy flavor of lemonade they are a great addition to any picnic or cookout. They are soft, cake-like cookies with lemonade in the batter. Once baked they are brushed with a little lemonade concentrate and sprinkled with sugar for an extra lemonade flavor.
Lemonade Cookies
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
2 eggs
1/2 c. lemonade concentrate, plus extra for brushing on cookies
2 t. lemon zest
3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
In medium bowl beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and then add the lemonade concentrate and lemon zest. Combine the flour and baking soda and stir into the butter mixture. Chill dough 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease baking sheets. Scoop dough in rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden. Once cookies have cooled brush with a little lemonade concentrate and sprinkle with sugar. Makes about 5 dozen.
Homemade Lemonade Mix
Homemade Lemonade Concentrate
Lemonade will always be a favorite summertime drink for me. I make it plain or sometimes with berries added. I like the convenience of those frozen lemonade concentrates but I prefer using fresh squeezed lemon juice. I started making my own concentrate a few years ago when I got a whole case of lemons from a friend. I juiced the lemons and froze much of the juice just plain. There was still a lot of juice. I decided I might as well try to make some lemonade concentrate, too. I went to the store and read the ingredients on several brands of frozen lemonade concentrate. High fructose corn syrup and concentrated lemon juice. Well I decided that wasn’t going to work for me so I did something radical. I stirred some sugar together with lemon juice until the sugar dissolved. There didn’t seem to be much point in adding water- that would defeat the purpose of it being a concentrate. Then I just froze the juice/sugar mixture.
Sometimes I freeze a whole batch together either in a plastic container or in a Ziploc bag. I also froze some of this lemonade mix in ice cube trays. That way once frozen I could pop the cubes into bags and just take out what I needed at the time. I’ll often add some lemon zest, too. Don’t toss all that zest, either. If you are going to be juicing a lot of lemon just for the juice, zest them first- and freeze or dry the zest for later use.
Well here is the recipe for my lemonade concentrate.
Homemade Lemonade Concentrate
1 1/3 c. lemon juice- fresh or bottled
1 c. sugar*
lemon zest, optional
Combine ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved. Freeze until ready to use. Makes a little over 1 1/2 cups. To use: combine three parts water to one part concentrate.
* You can use honey instead of sugar- but only use 1/2 c. honey as it is much sweeter than sugar.
Raspberry Lemonade
Raspberry Lemonade
Often the best things are the simple things. I will admit to making some pretty fancy dishes at times. I am not afraid of adding lots of ingredients for layers of flavor. But sometimes less is more. I had about 8 oz. of frozen raspberries. Well, they weren’t frozen anymore. I had thawed out a bag of raspberries for use in a cake. I had some extra and didn’t really want to freeze them again. I also had some fresh lemon juice so I decided to make a raspberry lemonade. I started with lemon juice, the berries and all the juices from the berries and a little sugar. Mixed it all together and added some water. At first I thought I’d strain out the berries but I decided to leave them in. Simple and delicious. Perfect refresher for a warm day.
