Try a little lemon juice to make flavors pop
It is amazing how something as simple as a lemon rolling out of the refrigerator can bring back sweet memories of special times in the kitchen. It reminded me that lemon was my husband’s favorite flavor.
Huey loved lemon meringue pie and also lemon icebox pie. If I couldn’t make either of these time-consuming desserts, he would never complain if I made some of the following easy-to-make Lemon Macaroon Muffin Puffs.
One of my favorite lemon treats is a batch of Lemon Almond Snaps. These have a tender crunch and the cookies just seem to melt in your mouth.
Lemon Macaroon Muffin Puffs
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter ½ cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup fine coconut
3 English muffins, split
Preheat oven to 375 F. In small bowl, beat egg until light and pale yellow. Add butter, sugar, salt, vanilla and lemon juice. Mix well. Stir in coconut. Place English muffin halves on ungreased cookie sheet. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of lemon macaroon mixture on each muffin half. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until topping puffs and turns golden brown. Best served warm.
Lemon Almond Snaps
1 ¾ cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
2/3 cup oil
3 cups all purpose flour
4 ½ oz. almonds, finely ground 1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure lemon extract
In large bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs and oil. Beat until blended. In medium bowl, combine flour, almonds, baking soda and salt. Stir to mix. Add flour/almond mixture and lemon extract to creamed mixture. Beat well. Drop dough from teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet, spacing cookies 2 inches apart. Using bottom of glass that has been dipped into sugar, flatten the dough. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet immediately. Cool on rack.
Prudence Hilburn has won more than 30 national cooking awards and written several cookbooks, including, “Simply Southern and More.” Write her at prudencehilburn@ aol.com or visit www. prudencehilburn.com.