Cookies, raspberry lemon - ecnivo/Recipes GitHub Wiki

By Loopy Whisk, with notes by me

Makes 16 (depending on size)

Ingredients

Curd:

  • 100 g (3/4 cups) fresh or frozen raspberries
  • 15 g (1 tbsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
  • 40 g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 large egg, room temperature
  • 1/2 egg yolk, room temperature (Get the egg yolk and egg together, whisk, then separate half the mixture. Make carbonora or something with the rest.)
  • Pinch of salt
  • 25 g unsalted butter, cubed
  • 3g (1/2 tsp) vanilla extract

Cookies:

  • 150 g (¾ cup) granulated sugar
  • zest of a lemon
  • 115 g (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 30 g (2 tbsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
  • 240 g (2 cups) AP flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 90 g (¾ cup) powdered/icing sugar, for rolling the cookies before baking

Steps

Optionally prepare day ahead:

Make the raspberry curd:

  1. Add the raspberries to a small saucepan and cook them over medium heat until they've completely softened and released their juices.
  2. Pass the softened raspberries though a sieve, placed over a small bowl, to remove the seeds and other solids. You should get about 80g or about ⅓ cup of raspberry juices.
  3. Return the raspberry juices to the saucepan and add the lemon juice. Cook the raspberry-lemon juice mixture over medium heat until it only just comes to a boil (but don't allow too much moisture to evaporate, remove it from the heat as soon as it comes to a boil).
  4. Meanwhile in another bowl, whisk together the sugar, egg, egg yolk and salt until slightly fluffy and paler in colour (no need to use a stand or a hand mixer for this, just whisk them briefly together by hand with a balloon whisk).
  5. Add the hot raspberry juices to the egg-sugar mixture in a slow drizzle, whisking constantly until you've added all the juices. This tempers the egg and egg yolk.
  6. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook it over low heat with constant stirring until thickened so that it thickly coats the back of a spoon or spatula. This should take about 4-6 minutes. Don't allow the raspberry curd to come to a boil – you shouldn't see any bubbles forming.
  7. Once thickened, remove from the heat and stir in the butter until it's fully melted. Add the vanilla and mix well.
  8. Pour the finished raspberry curd into a bowl or heat-proof container and cover it. Allow it to cool completely to room temperature, then chill it in the fridge for at least 1 hour or until thickened.
  1. Add the sugar and lemon zest to a large bowl (stand mixer works well). Add the melted butter, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla, and whisk well until combined.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, and add them to the wet ingredients.
  3. Mix with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula until you get a smooth, batter-like cookie dough. At this stage, the cookie dough will really be more like a batter – it will be very loose, soft and sticky, bordering on runny. That's how it should be. Don't add more flour!
  4. Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours before proceeding to the next step. In addition to firming up the cookie dough into something you can actually handle and shape into balls, chilling also ensures that the cookies won’t melt into puddles during baking.

Day of:

  1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line two large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper. Tip: You will bake the cookies in multiple batches, so you can line two baking sheets if you have them on hand. Otherwise, just re-use the same baking sheet, but make sure to cool it completely before you place the next batch of unbaked cookies onto it.
  2. Use a 2-tablespoon cookie or ice cream scoop to scoop out a portion of the cookie dough. They should be 25g each. Drop it directly into a bowl of powdered/icing sugar and roll it around until it’s evenly coated. Don't knock off the sugar.
  3. Repeat with the rest of the cookie dough, you should get 16 cookies in total. Put the dough back in the fridge between batches.
  4. Place the sugar-coated cookie dough balls onto the lined baking sheets, with 3+ inches between them, about 8 per baking sheet (as the cookies will spread during baking).
  5. Use a ½-tablespoon measuring spoon to make an indent in the centre of each cookie dough ball (make sure that you press only halfway through each cookie dough ball, not all the way through). Alternatively, use the end of a blunt instrument (eg. whisk, spatula, etc.)
  6. Fill the cookies with about 1 (generous) teaspoon of raspberry curd. Note that you won't use up all of the raspberry curd. You can use the remainder to serve with the cookies, or you can spread it on bread or cakes, swirl it into frosting or similar.
  7. Bake one baking sheet at a time at 350ºF (180ºC) for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies have spread and cracked around the edges and the raspberry curd centre is slightly puffed up but NOT visibly bubbling (this will ensure that it stays beautifully smooth and creamy).
  8. While the first batch of cookies is baking, keep the second baking sheet with the cookies in the fridge until needed.
  9. The cookies will be very soft and delicate immediately out of the oven. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for about 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
  10. These raspberry curd lemon cookies are amazing both warm and at room temperature, but I find them to be at their very best when they're chilled from the fridge.

Gallery