HELLO!
HAPPY QUARANTINE WEEK 5ish!
It has been awhile since I have been on here…I have missed it so much. I have been bouncing around health issues that coincidently happens the week right before school started—and it has been such a trip. Long story short- my spine/nerves had some issues, but I have been working with a great team to help put me back on track! Yay! And now that I have a break from school (still working though), I can get back into the kitchen so long as my body doesn’t get angry with me.
ANYWHOOSIES- I haven’t been in the kitchen in a long while, so I am a bit rusty. I have recently acquired a bunch of lovely Meyer lemons from a friend’s tree and started to just test a couple things out. Starting with the basics- a Honey Lemonade! And then a short bread cookie. I am not a fan of short bread cookies, but I felt like making them this time because I wanted to make a lemon glaze.
Honey Lemonade (inspired by A Sweet Pea Chef)
Honey Syrup:
1/3 cup of Honey
1 Tbsp of Lavender sugar
2 cups of water
1 cup of Meyer lemon juice
2-3cups of water (up to how tart you want it!)
Ice :)
Optional: Lemon Zest, Lavender, rosemary, thyme, vanilla bean
Directions:
-Add honey and 2 cups of water into a pot and cook until the honey is no longer viscous on medium heat. Let cool.
-Add 1 cup of lemon juice, 2 cups on water and all of the honey syrup to a pitcher . Fill with ice and serve.
Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies with Lavender Lemon Glaze
(I am still working on this one, but this is what I added)
1/3 cup of powdered sugar
12 tbsp of unsalted butter (softened)
1 tbsp on loose leaf earl grey tea (break it into smaller pieces with a mortar and pestle if you have one)
1.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp Hawaiian sea salt
1 tbsp of vanilla bean paste
Lemon Glaze
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
1-4 tsp of fresh Meyer lemon juice ( start small but add as much as you need to get the consistency you want. I personally do not measure this O_O, but if I had to guess…it would be around there)
the zest of 1/4 of a meyer lemon
**Mix well until a smooth, thin and opaque consistency and look.
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 325F
-Add and mix the Flour and salt together in a medium bowl.
-Add and mix softened butter and powered sugar in a large bowl until creamy. Add the vanilla bean and cream until vanilla is completely mixed in.
-Add the flour in 4 portions into the butter/sugar mixture.
-Mix until a smooth dough forms. It may crumble a bit, but that is okay! Just ball it up, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about an hour( (if you leave it in longer, that is okay too!)
-When you are ready, take it out of the fridge, and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out to about 0.25 inch thickness. Use your favorite cookie cutter or a shot glass to cutout your cookies.
-Place cookies on a baking sheet with parch emend paper and bake for 12-15minutes until the bottom of the cookies are a golden brown.
-Cool. Dip in glaze (I recommend you dip them twice for a thicker glaze coating) and let dry! Enjoy:)