Lemon Wreath Cookies

With the Chocolate Mint Sandwiches devoured, it was time to move on to lemon cookies as they are Husband’s favorite. Again, I turned to bake master Martha since her December 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living featured some delicious looking Lemon Wreath Cookies.

The first thing I noticed when reading the recipe, was the lack of refrigeration required of the dough.  Excellent.  Here were cookies I could make in one sitting; thus avoiding the risk of wandering off, starting another project and discovering cookie dough in the fridge weeks from now (Yes, this has happened to me more than once).  Yay!

These cookies seem relatively easy, however they did teach me one very important lesson: turn off your standing mixers in between each egg addition.  I am incredibly clumsy and somewhat lazy and therefore didn't take the time to stop my standing mixer before adding the first egg.  The result?  The egg slipped from my hand into the mixing bowl while the whisk attachment was spinning.  Tiny flecks of crunchy egg shell spread throughout my dough causing me to debate whether I:
A) dump out the dough and start over, likely meaning a second trip to the grocery store for more lemons
B) try to pick out all the egg shells
C) continue on as if nothing happened, not really worrying about it since the whisk chops the shells into such fine pieces that they would probably go unnoticed

Since Husband is the only one who actually reads this blog, we'll just say I went with option A.  Lesson learned: always shut off the mixer when eggs are involved. 

In addition to the larger mixer message, I have two pieces of advice if you try this recipe:

1) Exercise patience when rolling out the wonderfully sticky dough.  The four inch "rope" should be somewhat fat, but not long.  I was not so patient and ended up with several lopsided cookies that looked more like round dog treats than wreaths.  Even though they all tasted the same, I feel like looks do matter when you are trying to emulate Martha.

2) The recipe calls for WHITE nonpareils and these are not to be skipped. Without them, the cookies are way too lemony. Additionally if (like I did) you use another color, the acid in the lemon juice icing will cause the color to bleed. Again, this doesn’t affect taste, but it does make them look like they belong in a Dali painting.

On the whole, egg shells fiasco aside, this recipe was sadly only ok. Although the cookies were soft and cakey, they were also dry. I wonder if Martha just likes her cookies with a mouthful of milk?

Summary:
Difficulty Level: Low
Effort Level: Low
Cost: Inexpensive
Result: Dry, but tasty.  Might make again.