Hot Bakes: Lemon and Poppy Seed Cookies

Spotted this Martha Stewart recipe a couple of days ago and thought I would give them a try. They were absolutely delicious. I love this flavour combination.

Ingredients
Makes around 30 cookies

• 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice
• 3 1/2 tbsp's of freshly grated lemon zest (roughly 2 to 3 lemons)
• 225g of margarine
• 3 cups/390g of Plain Flour
• 1 tsp of Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 1/2 cups/300g of Caster Sugar
• 2 tsps of Vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp of Poppy Seeds (plus extra for decoration)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F
2. Bring lemon juice to a simmer in a small pan over a medium heat, cook until reduced by half.
3. Add half of the margarine, stir until melted
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt
5. Cream the remaining margarine and 200g/ 1 cup of the sugar (use an electric mixer if available)

6. Add the lemon butter, mix until pale (roughly 3 minutes)

7. Mix in the Vanilla essence and 2 tsps of lemon zest

8. Combine with the flour and Poppy Seeds

9. Stir together the remaining 1/2 cup/100g of sugar with 1/12 tsps of zest.

10. Roll spoonfuls of dough into 1 1/2 inch balls then roll them in the sugar mixture.

11. Place 2 inches apart on a baking tray

12. Press each with the bottom of a glass or large spoon to flatten

  13. Sprinkle with seeds

  14. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until just browned around the edges

Enjoy

J xx