Ever have that feeling like, “Yeah! I have a great idea and it will be AWESOME when I do it!” And then you get up to do it and your body and brain are like, “Maybe we’ll do it later. Yep. Later is a better idea and here are 18,746 reasons why later is better.” And then later comes and there is a legitimate excuse as to why you can’t just tackle this idea?
Chances are you do. And that was all me. About everything baking. For the last month. Granted, I did make that awesome Pink Champagne cake not too long ago and that was a bucket list recipe for me. And it was yummy!
So I went to my ProCakeU group and set myself to a public challenge: bake one thing every day for 30 days straight. That’ll teach me! Public accountability. Hey, it worked 6 years ago when I blogged about my weight loss journey and chronicled a 70 pound weight loss over 6 months time 🙂 If I did it then, I can do this now!
I’m worried this one may turn into 70 pound weight GAIN over 30 days with this public accountability thing I just committed to.
Either way, it’s all about YOU and ME and baking great stuff together. It’s what I do, so happily I embarked. Once I got my backside moving without excuses.
30 days is lot. Did you ever think about how many days 30 really is? Well, yes… it’s 30. 3 tens. Two 15s. But it’s also 30 ONES. And when those days equate to a commitment to do something each day that you’ve been dragging your feet on… *sigh* I needed, and still need, your help.
I consulted my handy survey. If you’ve subscribed to my newsletter recently, you have an invitation in there to tell me some things about what you want me to make. Go check your inbox for the survey. If not, sign up for my CakeLife newsletter on the sidebar to the right and you’ll get a survey soon. But that’s where I’m grabbing all my 30 day challenge ideas from. 🙂 Thanks for the help guys!
I’ve already made a few other items but I’m unveiling a doozey first! I call these: “Kara didn’t need to add ice cream but thought of it as she was typing up the recipe for you.” Or we could call them Lemon Raspberry Cookies and Ice Cream Sandwiches. That might be more acceptable. Or at least easier.
Now I do have to tell you that there are two ways to get that awesome, bright, sweet lemon flavor into these deliciously little cookies. You can use the zest and lemon juice method (slightly more tart) or you can do what I did and use zest and Amoretti’s Artisan Natural Lemonade flavoring. It’s richer and deeper and has a lemon pie-ish quality, which I love! If you want to use real lemon, just substitute 2 tables spoons of fresh lemon juice for the flavoring. But give the Amoretti a try. Seriously.
I tried making these three ways - with raspberries (as you clearly see here), with frozen blueberries, and with dried blueberries (raisin style).
Raspberries kicked everyone else’s bums. Blueberry just couldn’t stand up to the rich lemon and didn’t seem like “blueberry”. It made me sad. So sad that I tried to get my husband to convince me that blueberry was the right way to go. Blueberries ARE my favorite fruit. See my Blueberry Lemon Zucchini Bread recipe? I just wanted to recreate the yumminess in something small and hand held and easy-to-forget-how-many-I’ve-eaten sized… Loaves visually show you. Cookies stand alone, so when they’re gone it was just like they were never here to begin with. Like you may not have eaten 13… I digress.
He tried. I still didn’t listen. Even though I asked him to try. Is this what guys mean when they tell us we’re acting like women? I got the “Kara’s being Kara” head shake. But deep down, somewhere buried beneath all the cookies I made him try, he knows I’m right. 🙂
And true as the sky is blue, I sat down to put my recipe into my little recipe widget-y thing on my blog and it struck me out of the clear blue that these cookies NEEDED ice cream! And I sat for a brief second thinking, “I’ll just mention it in the notes section. Gosh it would be awesome if I had vanilla…. ICE CREAM!!!” Can you believe it?!? I couldn’t. I actually had a fresh half gallon of vanilla ice cream in my freezer. (Duh, Kara. Where else would it be, the laundry room?)
I never have ice cream just hanging around. But we were supposed to go have a lovey evening at a friend’s house last night, grilling out and playing on a new swing set… well, the kids were going to play on the swing set. Not me. That’s what I was told. Alas, two of the kidlets decided to create a new X-treme Olympic sport. Ready for it moms? Hope you’re not squeamish…
Synchronized stomach expulsions. Two of ’em at once. And while I could get all grumpy about the lost night of sleep and all the excessive laundry I have to do and the groaning and moaning… The fact is that these two sicklings are the reason I have the ice cream, still, and that it wound up in between these delicious cookies, staring you straight in the face, screaming EAT ME! I’m glad, so it’s ok, you can be glad they’re sick, too! (Of course I’m not happy my kids are sick… no witch hunts in the comments. Though it may cause some people pause before procreating in the future. Again, not my intention.)
*EDIT 6 DAYS LATER* I completely forgot to mention how to get those beautiful swirls of berry color on the top without the cookie dough just mixing into a salmon colored, gloppy mess! And I’ve got pictures for you!
Firstly, use a number 20 scoop like I’ve mentioned. The cookies come out beautiful and perfectly matching in size.
But after you make a number of scoops (usually after 2-3) you’ll start to see this happening on the surface of the scoop:
Yes, it’s got that pretty watercolor-y thing going one with the bright red of the raspberries and the rich yellow of the dough, but they start to merge and make a murky and boring top to your cookies when they bake. And we want stunning, eye catching cookies with distinct streaks of raspberry so they look like all those great blog photos, right? I’ve got a top for you. And it’s what I do to get the pretty cookies I want…
When you load your scoop, grab with your fingers a bit of berry that hasn’t been mixed in. A solid bit of color and place it in your scoop before filling it. Press it aainst the outer curve of the scoop so it’s what ends up face up at the top of the cookie when you plop it out (I really don’t know what the action of squeezing the trigger and the dough falling out should be called, so we’ll use “plopping”… it’s homage to my favorite ever TV show - The Office - and if you know what I’m referencing tell me in the comments!).
Then fill the rest of the scoop with dough pressing it in around the show-stopping berry. Here’s the thing though, doing that with berry chunks leaves berry juice and thats what causes the murky merge of colors. So take a damp paper towel and wipe it out clean every so often and continue scooping those delicious cookies!
Look. At. Those.
Ok. Enough teasing, have at this awesome recipe! You can print it. Or just bookmark this page and come back all summer long 🙂
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 24 cookies | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 12 minutes |
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Sweet, bright lemon and tart raspberries make this the perfect summertime cookie to share at picnics and celebrations! Soft and chewy, pack a PUNCH of flavor, and rather beautiful to look at to boot! Serve them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream between them for a great take on ice cream sandwiches!
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- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 eggs, large
- 1 each zest of lemon one whole medium lemon
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Amoretti Artisan Natural Lemon flavoring
- 2 tsp Amoretti Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup frozen raspberries, chopped rough
- Preheat oven to 325˚F and prepare baking pans with parchment or silicone mats.
- Chop frozen raspberries roughly, leaving large pieces, and return to the freezer until just before mixing.
- Place flour cream of tartar, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light in color. Add eggs one at a time and scrape the bowl down between additions.
- Add zest, lemon flavoring and vanilla and mix till combined.
- Add all dry ingredients at once and mix on low speed until just barely incorporated.
- Remove bowl from the mixer and stir in the raspberries by hand careful not to over mix.
- Using a number 20 scoop (or 2 tablespoons at a time) drop cookie dough onto prepared pans leaving 3 inches between each drop.
- Bake at 325˚F for 12 minutes.
- Remove from cookie sheet after 2 minutes and let cool on a cooling rack.
- Store airtight with parchment separating layers for up to 7 days. Refrigeration is best.
Match up like sized cookies and add a big scoop of premium vanilla ice cream, smoosh 'em together and make GREAT summertime ice cream sammies!
You can get a #20 scoop right HERE. It makes cookie-ing so much easier 🙂 Perfectly sized cookies every time.
Oh! Also, if you want them to look more yellow lemon-y, add a drop of yellow gel color!
Enjoy the lemon raspberry goodness!
Christy says
Instead of ice cream, I plan to make lemon buttercream to sandwich between them ❤
Ooh! That sounds good!