Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies

Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, it caught my eye and I checked it out over on Joy the Baker. As I was reading about them, it said they were a great light cookie to sit down and have a cup of tea with, and it suggested making them with lemon or orange, and I thought why not lime? I had bought a bottle of lime extract a while back and hadn't really come across a recipe that called for it, so I was really happy at the thought of finally using it. I was sure my hubby would like them too, because he likes anything with lime in it, so, I started in. The recipe called for vanilla extract, the citrus extract and the corresponding citrus zest. The recipe was very easy and they were in the oven very fast. They smelled really good as they were baking and I was convinced that we had found a new favorite cookie.

After the first tray had a chance to cool, I handed my hubby one to try. He said that it was good, lots of lime flavor, etc. Well, I'm glad that I broke a piece off of one and tried it before I started passing them out to my friends and neighbors! That's the problem when your hubby thinks that everything you make is perfect, the best, amazing! I took a bite and tried to spit it out in my hand but it wouldn't, because it was stuck to my tongue, the roof of my mouth and coating my teeth! They were so dry and floury, I have never had anything quite like that before. Something was wrong. I looked back over the recipe and I had not left anything out and had followed the directions to the letter.


I put the second tray in the oven and took five minutes off of the 20 minutes on the recipe, hoping that maybe the first batch was overdone. After that tray had cooled, we split a cookie and it was still exactly the same. It was frustrating, but this recipe has the potential to be a great recipe, so I'm not going to give up on it yet. From the texture, I'm thinking that there was too much flour, powdered sugar and cornstarch for one cube of butter. The original recipe comes from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, so I know it is from a good source. I'm going to give you the recipe in case you want to check it out. Maybe you will have better luck than me. I think it is important to show the failures, because everything doesn't always come out perfect, at least not in this kitchen. Oops! Maybe I better change the name of this blog.

 Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cornstarch

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon or orange extract

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon or orange zest

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Combine the butter and confectioners sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed with the paddle until well mixed. Increase the speed to medium and continue beating until light, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Batter may look broken and curdled. Beat in the extracts and zest.

Decrease the speed to low and beat in the flour. Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the dough a few good turns wit your spatula to bring it all together.

Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough on a pan lined with parchment paper. Space the balls about 2-inches apart. After all the cookies have been placed on the pan, flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough. Bake the cookies until they spread and become golden, about 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Makes 48 tiny cookies.

One last thing I should have noticed at the time, my dear sweet hubby had the milk carton out and was trying to wash that cookie down! I didn't put two and two together!