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Hello, today I’m coming at you with one of the best tea time cakes of all time, the lemon drizzle AND a recipe for this classic cake re-imagined in cookie format. You know I love to change the format of a classic, we’ve already made Black Forest cookies and since I knew I wanted to make a lemon drizzle it only seemed fair that I played around with some cookies as well. These cookies are chewy, crisp and most of all LEMONY.
For paid subscribers I’m sharing my recipe for a classic lemon drizzle loaf with a lemon curd core (and no you don’t need one of those fancy tins to achieve this), this is a cake that I make on repeat, both my boyfriend and my dad are lemon drizzle boys and this recipe has their seal of approval, I hope it gets yours too!
Both of these recipes contain lemon curd, since I hate making tiny bathes of curd, the recipe listed makes enough for both recipes, if you just want to make one recipe you can either freeze any leftover curd (it freezes and defrosts perfectly), or make a smaller batch.
Let’s start with the cookies…
Whenever I set out to change the format of a classic cake or dessert I always have to think about the main components, what is it that really makes lemon drizzle a lemon drizzle and how am I going to transfer these elements into a cookie? Luckily for me, lemon drizzle cake is incredibly simple, with very few elements so let’s have look at what we’ve got:
Sponge: Of course the main element of a lemon drizzle is a lovely moist and slightly dense lemon sponge, this is an easy swap, rather than a lemon sponge with have a lemon cookie, I’ve used my standard base cookie recipe and added a tonne of lemon zest.
Lemon Syrup: This is where things get more complicated, a lot of the lemon flavour in a lemon drizzle comes by absolutely drowning the cake in a tangy lemon syrup, however, dousing cookies in syrup just leaves you with a soggy mess, so how do we add that lemony tang? I opted to fill the cookies with a nice big splodge of lemon curd. Now, the addition of lemon curd does mean that these cookies are somewhat awkward to store, I recommend storing them without the curd and then adding it right before serving. Alternatively you can leave out the curd altogether and make simple glazed lemon cookies, they’re still very delicious but don’t quite deliver the same slap in the face lemon flavour.
Drizzle: For the crunchy lemon drizzle coating I used the exact same recipe that I use for my lemon loaf, it adds that classic lemon drizzle crust that is absolutely essential.
Decoration: No decoration is necessary for a lemon drizzle cake or cookies, however, I found myself thinking that my cookies looked slightly too much like fried eggs so I decided to add some decorative daisies, the ones I use are made out of tempered white chocolate but they can easily be made from marzipan or fondant icing to make the cookies look extra special.
Ok let’s get into the recipe!
Lemon Drizzle Cookies
Ingredients - makes 13 cookies at 50g each
Lemon Curd (makes more than you’ll need but I don’t like to make a smaller batch)
80g lemon juice
80g caster sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks
40g butter
Lemon Cookies
240g caster sugar
zest of 2 lemons
130g soft butter
1 large egg
Pinch of salt
260g plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
Lemon Glaze
50g icing sugar
13g lemon juice
Method - Lemon Curd
Boil a pan of water, once boiling reduce the heat to just below a simmer.
Weigh everything apart from the butter into a metal bowl, whisking between each addition.
Place the bowl over the pan of boiling water and whisk the curd continuously until it thickens and any froth disappears from the top.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool to between 30°C-40°C/100°F, whisking occasionally to prevent a skin forming.
Once cool enough add the butter a bit at a time, if you’re having trouble getting it to incorporate or it’s got a bit too cold you can use a hand blender to help you out.
Finally, sieve it and transfer to a piping bag, store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Method - Lemon Cookie
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/356°F (fan oven) and line two baking trays.
Rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your hands until fragrant.
Cream the butter, sugar and zest.
Add the egg and beat until fully incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Weigh out 50g balls and spread out on two lined baking sheets, I do 6 per tray and usually bake the extra one as a test.
Bake the cookies for 11-14 minutes, until they’re crackled and set on top.
As soon as the cookies come out of the oven scoot them with a cookie cutter to make them the perfect round shape and then make an indentation in the centre for the curd, I use the back of an ice cream scoop for this but you can also use the back of a spoon.
Method - Lemon Glaze & Finishing
Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice until you have a smooth, runny icing.
Using a pastry brush, brush the glaze around the outside of the cookie, avoiding the indentation and leave to set for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
At this point you can store them, they’ll keep for up to 4 days in an airtight container unfilled.
To fill them, pipe a blob of lemon curd in the centre and decorate however you like. Once filled, they’ll keep for 2 days in the fridge.
And now onto our lovely lemon loaf…