Mystery Spice Monday! #3

Welcome Back to Mystery Spice Monday! I realize it's still Sunday, but I thought I'd start a day early this week, give everyone a chance to participate today and tomorrow, and introduce to you not one but TWO great recipes!

If you'd like to learn more about Mystery Spice Monday, find out why I'm doing this and read about my little rules Here.

So this week Hubs picked out the spice again. And again I was left shaking my head, rolling my eyes, and frantically looking up recipes online. Why does he have to do this to me? I suppose it's my fault for letting him pick, but still!

He picked out...

Are you ready for it?

...

Lemon Extract!

...

I know...

And then he said...

"Make an entree with it!"

Ugh...

I did some searches online, and came up with nada.

So I decided to make cookies instead.

We could always use more cookies, right? lol

Especially with Girl Scout Cookie season in full swing.

So I found this recipe, and decided to use 2 sticks of butter instead of using shortening. I don't know why, but that stuff grosses me out. Looking back I think they probably would have come out with a chewier texture if I had used shortening, with all butter they ended up more cakey, which I liked but isn't what the recipe is supposed to be all about.

First you cream together 2 sticks of softened butter (or 1 stick, and 1/2 cup of shortening).



Then 2 cups of sugar.



Crack 3 eggs into a cup, make sure you don't get all the shell out, and then pour them into the mix. I suppose if your brave you can just put them directly into the mix, but I'm a chicken in that regard.



And here's the star of the show! Lemon Extract! It really does give these cookies a great flavor. So add 1 teaspoon of lemon extract, and also 1 teaspoon of vanilla.



Then here's what probably gives the cookies their moistness, sour cream! When I saw this ingredient I knew it was going to be a great recipe. Add 5 tablespoons to the mix.





Then you mix it allllllll up!



Next you add the dry ingredients. I sifted together 4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

And then I poured the dry ingredients into the wet, mixed thoroughly, and then put the dough into the fridge for several hours while Mom and I went to go buy garden beds. :)

When we came back it looked like this!



Then I used a mini-ice cream scoop to form the cookies into balls, and pressed them flat with the bottom of a sugar coated glass. If you pick a glass that has cool marks on the bottom you can end up with some really pretty cookies!



Then you toss them in a 350 degree oven until they just barely start to turn color on the edges. DO NOT OVERBAKE!!! If you do you will loose all the wonderful chewy texture. Mine took about 8 minutes.

And Voila! Beautiful sugar cookies!



Now, I will say that these cookies are just BEGGING for icing of some sort. I decided to go with a glaze type icing because I thought it would be pretty with the star shape on top. But I am seriously not happy with how my icing turned out... such a bummer!

What I ended up with was some serious cookie carnage.

What can I say, I was practically dead on my feet while I was making these and by the time I finally finished I was ready to pass out. I was not making wise decisions at that point. lol

So I won't share with you how I made my icing, it's not something you'll want to do anyway. I'm sure you have some fabulous icing recipe that your grandmother used to make that would be MUCH better!

But if you really must view the carnage, here it is... in all it's dripping glory.






Gotta great Mystery Spice Monday recipe to share? Just enter your name and a permanent link to your post below! Be sure to come back and check the list over the next couple days to see more great recipes!