Tarting-up a Favorite Family Recipe

Molasses Cookies with Creamy-Lemon Frosting

My years at Safety-Kleen brought me together with some wonderful home cooks and bakers. We regularly brought treats and exchanged recipes. This is one such recipe. The best part--other than the spicy molasses flavor--is that these cookies bake-up almost perfectly round, and crackle.

Years ago I bought some Carrs sandwich cookies which reminded me of this recipe. They had a lemon frosting in the middle. That was a light bulb moment. "My Molasses Cookies are much better than theirs and I can adapt my recipe." I use fresh lemon juice and zest with a regular powdered-sugar frosting, and these are to-die-for. And, you know this girl loves her some lemons!


MOLASSES COOKIES
[Mary King, Safety-Kleen]

3/4 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Molasses
1 Egg
2 Cups Flour
2 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ground cloves
1/2 tsp. Ground ginger
1/2 tsp. Salt


1. Cream butter and sugar with mixer.
2. Add molasses and egg; beat well.
3. Whisk together flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt in separate bowl.
4. Gradually add to butter mixture.
5. When well blended, cover with plastic wrap and chill in frig at least one hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Shape cookie dough into 1" balls; roll in sugar.
8. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 8 - 10 minutes, or until golden.
9. Cool 5 minutes; remove to wire racks; store in airtight container.

Light colored cookies--still wet on top--will be moist and chewy.
The darker the cookies, the crisper they become after cooling.
The flavor changes with the amount of baking time--always good!

Lemons for Lemonade

-via @mademoisellepoirot on Instagram-

 

 

Can't ignore lemons. Love the typography.

 

Lemon Tartlettes

 

 

I've treasured this cookbook for years. It was one of the first I purchased in the early years of our marriage. This has been not only my go-to pastry cookbook, but CA's also as he's the primary pie crust-maker, pie baker at our house. I may research Julia's The Way to Cook for almost all techniques, but Martha's Pies & Tarts is the word in our home for all things pie-related.

This has been in my to-do list for several days. I froze the leftover pâte brisée from CA's birthday peach pie, planning cinnamon rolls or lemon tartlettes.

CA's Birthday Peach Pie

 

I did some quick thinking as I reached for the pie weights--then I folded some parchment paper in thirds, drew two outlines of the tart pan drop bottom, and cut six circles about 1" outside the drawn outline. I folded each circle into 8ths, laid one over each pastry-lined pan, and then gently dropped a handful of ceramic beads into the center of each parchment circle. Voilà!

Maybe this photo clarifies that process...

How to line a tartlette crust.

 

Today, I'm using a prepared lemon curd, although I've been very happy using Martha's recipe in the past.

 

 

Voilà! x 6.

Not really this orange. Just lemony yellow.

 

Lemonade

 

This promises me summertime. Simply delicious, and I have the best lemonade recipe which begins with preparing a simple syrup.

OLD FASHIONED LEMONADE

• 1-1/2 C. Sugar
• 1-1/2 C. Water
• 1 T. Lemon zest
• 1-1/2 C. Freshly-squeezed Lemon juice (8 - 9 lemons)
• Garnish: Lemon slice and fresh herb sprigs

 

1. Stir together sugar, water and lemon zest
2. Heat mixture to a boil, stirring constantly
3. Boil 5 minutes, stirring often
4. Remove pan from heat and cool completely
5. Stir in lemon juice
6. Transfer to a lidded jar and refrigerate for up to 3weeks
7. To use: Mix together 1/2 C. Lemon syrup muxture with 3/4 C. of water
8. Garnish with lemon slices and fresh Mint or Basil sprigs

 

This is my current reality...

 

Ice Dams. Dripping ceilings in three rooms, wet walls, even wet bedroom carpet. Insurance claims. Demolision. Reconstruction.

 

 

Yet, I'm O.K. with it all. The insurance deductible is doable. Everything can be fixed. There's nothing we can do right now. We checked twice with our very professional insurance agent-friend. Just to be sure.

 

Maybe my perspective is better this time because of the tornado damage my sister's community has very recently experienced. Washington, Illinois is rebuilding. The spirit is dynamic. While I'm sure there are some discouraging, tragic stories, the neighborhood's and town's overall message is one of hope and dynamic recovery. Progress. Survival. Improvement.

 

This past weekend, we saw evidence of reconstruction. New rooftops, Tyvek-clad walls, beams and studs. Families are persevering and recovering. It's unimaginable to have experienced such instantaneous trauma and loss. Yet... The human spirit, as designed by our God and creator, is amazingly resilient.

 

You Say Lemon, I Say Limone

Quite obviously, I would have loved the Kate Spade show at Fashion Week NYC.

 

 

 

Ah-h-h... Wonder what it costs?

 

Lemons, Again

 

 

This image turned up on the Williams Sonoma catalog site. Love it! Linens on sale, plus 25% off.

 

Lemons: The Scout Guide

 

-via The Scout Guide

 

Panera's Thinking About Lemonade

 

 

Let's support Make-A-Wish® Illinois.

 

Holiday Weekend Alone

Plenty of time to work on my projects.

 

 

Pots to fill.

 

 

 

Lemon Zest Petunias and Blue Lobelia to arrange.

 

 

 

My nightstand to finish priming. Paint colors to consider.

 

 

But until this sunny morning, the rain and wetness has precluded all outdoor tasks. Unfortunately, I've been lulled by the lazy, hazy cloudy and wet weather, sucked into the Internet-app world trying to figure out how I'm going to enjoy following my blogger friends post-Google Reader. This crucial problem requires much research. Hours and days.

 

 

Maybe a double espresso under the lemon trees will get me moving.

 

 

 

Or not. Those martinis aren't mine. Definitely not mine. What do you guess? Lemon-drop?

 

 

Well, it is Mother's Day in France. And the Cannes Movie Festival was exhausting...

 

Everywhere There are Limones...

Can't Resist

via Erika at Urban Grace Interiors

Just can't resist some beautiful lemon photos. Our brother-in-law, PW, grows Meyer lemons, too. We taught their young daughter to make lemon curd and lemon tarts and many of their Meyer lemons find their way into those goodies. Yum!

I keep finding Meyer lemon recipes in blogland. Like Lemon Syrup. Or, Lemon Risotto.