March ABC challenge: Lemon Chile Spritz

 

This month, the challenge was "cookies".  Despite the name "Lemon Fire Crisps",  they were neither crisp nor very lemony, although they were sort of firey (from the cayenne powder).  I made half the normal recipe, which called for 6 dozen.  I got about 4 dozen.  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/8 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and egg and beat well.  Sift the dry ingredients together, then beat into the butter mixture.  Place the mixture into a cookie press and force the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

These were disappointingly bland.  They didn't have nearly enough lemon flavor, but looking back over the recipe, I think I might have failed to add lemon juice.  (I remember at the time thinking that lemon zest wasn't flavorful enough to use exclusively.)  So I made a tart glaze, which improved the flavor.  Weirdly, the result of a bland cookie is it makes you eat more of them, I guess because you're left unsatisfied.

Another issue was the dough was already VERY soft, so added liquid (lemon juice) would have made the dough that much more difficult to handle.  It might benefit from a light chilling before shaping.  Also, I sensed that using the 2 setting on my press released too much dough and would have resulted in shapeless cookies, so I used the 1 setting, making smaller cookies than the recipe calls for.  (And slightly less baking time.)

I found I preferred these baked slightly less as opposed to more.  It gave them a richer and creamier texture, as though they had cream cheese, but also made them very soft.

Conclusion:  I found these far too bland.  They definitely benefited from the added salt, but needed far more lemon flavor.  (Again, I might have left out the lemon juice by mistake.)

Recipe:  Lemon Fire Crisps via Chile Pepper magazine, June 1993 (Fiesta Canning Co., Inc.)