Food

THE LOVELIEST LEMON DROPS NOW

By Paulo Valdivieso. Lemon dropped in jar.

The tart burst upon your tongue wakes you up, while a touch of sweetness mellows you out to a bright happy glow. That’s the beauty of lemon drops. We’ve got some lovely juicy beautiful lemon drop martinis and two kinds of lemon drop cookies that we bet you will totally love.

LEMON DROP CANDIES

This Lemon Drop Candy Recipe was adapted a beautiful recipe from SouthernFATTY. Their recipe calls for artificial food coloring, which we prefer not to add. If you must have color, try steeping saffron in the water before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.

Lemon Drop Candies

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar, granulated
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
2 teaspoons citric acid
Powdered sugar to coat

Instructions:

Prepare work stations-- sauce-pan, silicone mat/marble/oiled parchment paper on sheet pan, oiled/buttered kitchen shears, oiled/buttered spatula, pan of coating sugar. Have ingredients all measured and ready to incorporate before starting. Sugar isn't very forgiving!

Heat sugar, water and cream of tartar (prevents crystallization) in stainless steel or copper saucepan over medium/medium-high heat.

Heat to exactly 300 deg F, using a candy thermometer to verify temperature.

At 300, immediately remove pan from heat and pour to silicone mat/marble/lined pan.

Mix in lemon extract, citric acid and a small amount of gel coloring. Incorporate with oiled spatula.

When cool enough to handle (this will happen quickly), form into rope.

Using oiled kitchen shears, cut rope into individual pieces. Let fall into pan of coating sugar. This prevents the pieces from sticking to each other.

Sift excess sugar and allow candy to cool completely. It will harden after some time.

Makes approximately 45 pieces.

BEAUTIFULNOW LEMON DROP MARTINI

We’ve (happily) tried several versions of this cocktail. We’ve experiments and developed some ideas of our own. Here is our fave.

BeautifulNow Lemon Drop Martini

Ingredients:

2 sour lemon drop candies
2 ounces of gin
1 lemon wedge
1 lemon twist
1 sprig of lemon thyme
Sugar

Directions:

Moisten the rim of a martini glass with the lemon wedge. Dip the rim into the sugar, to coat.

Drop one lemon drop candy into the martini glass

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the second lemon drop candy and the gin. Shake well.

Strain the iced gin into the cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist and thyme sprig.

Pucker up! Serves 1.

LEMON DROP COOKIES

We found the most luscious Lemon Drop Cookie recipe at Shades of Cinnamon. They are essentially little orbs of lemon shortbread, embellished with pockets of homemade Lemon Curd.

They are little bites of lemon drop heaven.

Lemon Drop Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
½ cups sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
2½ cup flour
Lemon curd

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until soft and combined.

Beat in egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt.

With mixer on low, beat in flour just until clumps form. With your hands knead into a soft dough.

Shape heaped teaspoons of dough into 1-inch balls.

Place the balls on your oven tray with space between each one.

Dip your finger into flour and make a deep indentation in the middle of each ball. Bake cookies until firm and lightly golden on bottom, about 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and immediately fill indentations with curd. Return to oven and bake for a further 2 minutes.

Allow to cool and sprinkle with icing sugar and store.

ANGINETTI (ITALIAN LEMON DROP COOKIES)

Anginetti are rich, eggy, lemon biscuits, glazed with lemon icing. Cooking with Grace has a delightful version of these sweet/tart treats.

These lemon drop cookies are supposed to have a very thin glaze, so if you ice them while they are hot and then set them on a rack like this, all the excess glaze will melt off and leave a thin layer of icing.

They are perfect little morsels to accompany a nice dark espresso.

Anginetti (Lemon Drop Cookies)

Ingredients:

1 lemon
½ cup sugar
3 eggs
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grate the zest of the lemon into a mixing bowl and stir it together with the sugar. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a separate small bowl and set aside. You can use a small fine mesh strainer (I used a tea strainer) to make sure the seeds and pulp don’t get into the bowl.

Add the eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla to the mixing bowl with the sugar. Stir it together well with a fork or a whisk.

Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Wet your hands so that the dough doesn’t stick, and roll small ping-pong-ball sized cookies. Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or sprayed to prevent sticking.

Bake the cookies for ten to fifteen minutes, or until they feel hard when you tap the tops of the cookies. While the cookies are baking, make the icing by putting the powdered sugar in a bowl and stirring in the lemon juice, a little at a time, to make a smooth icing. Use just a spoonful of the lemon juice to start, because a little goes a long way!

When the cookies are still hot out of the oven, spread a little icing on each one and set them on a drying rack to cool. A thin layer of the glaze will spread out to cover each one as they cool down. Make sure to put parchment or wax paper underneath the cooling rack to catch the drips.

Ice each batch of cookies when it comes out of the oven, and when they are cooled you can store them in a sealed container and enjoy them especially with tea or coffee :)