Recipe: Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Sugar Cookies

 

I visited Saint Michaels, MD over the holiday weekend, and I stopped by Olivins, this little shop that sells all sorts of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars. I have tried and bought several of their products before, and this time I purchased a bottle of their meyer lemon olive oil. The store owner recommended making lemon cookies using the flavored olive oil and he shared the recipe with me (image above). I also found the recipe on the Love & Olive Oil blog, reproduced here:

Ingredients

·   2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

·   1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·   1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·   1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

·   1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, plus more for rolling

·   1/3 cup lemon infused olive oil

·   2 large eggs

·   1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.     Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2.     In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3.     In a second large bowl, combine sugar and olive oil and mix with a spatula until it forms a grainy paste. Add eggs and vanilla and stir until smooth. Fold in dry ingredients until just incorporated. You should have a fairly soft, oily dough.

4.     Fill a small dish with more granulated sugar. Scoop dough by the tablespoonful into balls and roll in sugar to coat. Arrange on a nonstick or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches of space between cookies.

5.     Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until tops are puffed and crackly and edges just start to turn light golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies are best enjoyed the day they are made, but will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

This recipe is identical to the one the store manager gave me, except that he recommended baking the cookies for 13-15 minutes. I ended up baking mine for just over 13 minutes. They did look a little blonde after coming out of the oven (although you can't tell from my auto-filtered photo!), but he was very adamant about not overbaking. (Which is funny, since the time he suggested was longer. But anyway...). 

The dough for these cookies was very easy to put together, but NOT easy to roll. It was SO sticky! My apartment is quite warm, so that might have had something to do with it. In the picture, you can see some of the cookies look perfectly round (closest to the bottom of the picture); those were the first few I was able to make, and they have a wide crackling effect on the top. But after only a few cookies, my hands were caked in batter and could no longer roll the balls properly. So I gave up and used a cookie scoop to make round-ish drop cookies; rather than roll them in sugar, I sprinkled some on top. You can see how some of the other cookies still look pretty good, but others are lumpy and misshapen. And those secondary cookies have more, smaller cracks rather than several large ones like the "perfect" cookies.

In the end, I think I achieved the desired outcome that was pretty close to the original intent. The cookies were soft and delicious ("if I do say so myself," as my great-grandmother would say if no one complimented the meal she had just prepared. Sassy lady!) I'm not sure I would bother making this recipe again because the dough was such a pain to work with, but maybe next time I would wait until the fall to make them, rather than in the heat of summer. And I definitely would add this olive oil to my next boxed cake to add a yummy lemony flavor!