Today was a glorious day! I mean, aside from the very awesome fact that I woke up, it was a glorious arising because I finally got to have tea with @scribblingramma!
We have been planning to get together for a bit of tea sipping and a chat for a long time, but between illness, obligation, and other sorts of life detritus, we just hadn't gotten around to it yet.
Until today.
And me being me, I just couldn't attend a tea party empty-handed. As I had a solitary lemon languishing on the counter, it occurred to me that the lonely citrus could be put to good tea party use. And as I am now in the thick of week two without dairy, well I was rearing to try whipping up something both dairy-free and tea party worthy.
Shortbread sounded nice.
Mainly because shortbread is easy to craft and I wanted to see if I could make a tasty, dairy-free shortbread. Challenge accepted.
When I made the cookie dough last night, I had no intentions of blogging about it (hence the lack of step-by-step photo footage), but then when I sliced and baked the dough this morning I thought maybe I should.
Later, after the hubs and @scribblingramma both told me that they liked the shortbread, well, that did it, I thought the cookies of yum had to be shared.
Plus, they are super easy to make. You just mix together some non dairy butter alternative and sugar, add some lemon zest and almond extract, and then beat in some flour. The resulting dough is shaped into a square log and thrown into the fridge for a good chill, and then sliced and baked for a very short time.
Cool, snag, devour. That's all there is to it!
Plus, it's a great way for a lonely lemon to meet its end! Well, the lemon might not think so, but I do, as does the rest of the inhabitants of my domicile. They very much enjoyed the lemon shortbread.
And without any more fanfare, here's the recipe:
Dairy-Free Lemon Shortbread
3/4 cup softened Earth Balance buttery sticks (I'm sure regular ol' butter would work too)
1/2 cup plus 2 TBSP powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
The zest of one lemon (around 1TBSP)
1 3/4 cup plus 2 TBSP all purpose flourAdd buttery sticks and powdered sugar to a mixing bowl and cream together.
Next, add lemon zest and almond extract, mix in well.
Add flour to mixing bowl and mix until dough is well-combined, crumbly, and able to be pressed together easily. If your dough is too dry you can add more buttery stick, 1 TBSP at a time, If it's too wet add more flour 1 TBSP at a time. You want your dough to be like playdough that's just a touch on the dry side.
Shape your dough into a squared log about twelve inches long and two inches wide or so. Wrap in plastic wrap, chill for at least an hour. (I always chill mine overnight)
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove chilled dough from the fridge and slice into squares 1/4 inch thick. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE!
Cool cookies on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Then devour!
And last but not least, big thank you and your awesome shoutout to @scribblingramma! I had a blast, your banana bread and Assam were awesome, and the company even more so! We did it!
