UeaT

Hello to a new week and the first snowfall of the season!!
We suggest that you stay indoors, drink warm hot chocolate, and bake some delicious Shortbread Sugar Cookies. They are super simple and quick to make, and turn out absolutely amazing!
(Click on the image to make it larger)

As promised, here is the second installment of the U-Cookie recipes. Click on the image to make it larger, and right click to save it to your computer.   Enjoy!
You will need:
2 1/4 cups margarine
2 cups brown sugar
3 whole eggs
2/3 cups molasses (not blackstrap molasses)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Steps to follow:

• Mix all dry ingredients together and sift.
• Cream together the margarine and brown sugar in a standing mixture until smooth and light (4-5 mins).
• Slowly add the sifted ingredients to the creamed margarine and mix evenly until smooth.
• Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours (or overnight).
• Roll the dough with your hands into golf-ball sized shapes.
• Roll the balls into sugar on one side, leave the other side clean.
• Lay the dough balls (clean side down) on a parchment lined baking tray and bake at 350F for 12-15 mins.
• They should appear brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

In UeaT's opinion, the best thing about the holidays is the food. And the cookies. Gingerbread. Chocolate chip. Pecan. Shortbread. Caramel. Chocolate. Cookies!! You can buy them. Or make them. We prefer to make ours at home. It takes less than an hour to prepare a warm, buttery batch of cookies, and they make excellent presents. Just wrap them up in cellophane, or put them in a cookie tin. Cheap and yummy. Everybody's happy!

  First up, Lemon Shortbread Cookies with Cornmeal. These cookies are awesome because they melt in your mouth, but also provide a gritty texture. And the lemon flavor is subtle, and warm. These crumbling cookies are a delight to make (it takes only 25 minutes from start to finish) and a delight to eat.
(recipe adapted from Poppytalk)
You will need:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cornmeal, or a bit more if you really like the gritty texture
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, unsalted
1/2 cup icing sugar (if you don't have any at home, you can put regular sugar in a grinder until it turns to a powder, or simply use regular sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Lemon zest from one lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice

What you need to do:

1. Start off by preheating your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. In a large bowl, using your electric mixer, blend all the sugar and butter until it is fluffy. It helps to have the butter softened.
3. Gradually, add the vanilla extract and the lemon zest and juice. Keep mixing for a minute.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, cornstarch using a whisk or a fork.
5. Slowly, add your dry mixture to your butter and sugar mixture. You don't need the electric mixer at this point...it is best to use a form and mix by hand. Mix until they are just combined (you can not see the white flour anymore), but don't over-mix it.
6. At this point, the mixture should be soft and doughy. Break off a small piece and form a ball with your hands (about two inches in diameter). Lay the dough-ball onto parchment paper (which should be spread over your baking sheet) and slightly flatten the ball with a fork.
7. Keep doing this until you have used up all the dough. Remember to give the cookies a couple of inches space to be able to expand.
8. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes...the bottoms should be slightly golden. Take them out and leave them to cool.

And thats it!! 25 minutes and you have awesome cookies ready! Enjoy!