Lemon Extravaganza

So, I already shared the picture of my lemons. I bought 10 and hand squeezed all of them last night (with this little wonderful tool from Wal-Mart- a hand squeezer that's super easy to use for $6-yes!)


All in all, I made lavender-lemon shortbread cookies, microwave lemon curd, and a little bit of homemade lemonade. Here are the recipes!


Lavender Lemon Shortbread 
(I didn't make it up, but a friend of my mom's gave it to me)

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon edible dried lavender (McCormick sells it in their "gourmet" spice collection and its relatively inexpensive) and feel free to add more
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon extract. Add flour and salt; mix until smooth.  Mix in dried lavender. If dough feels sticky, add an additional 1/4 cup of flour. Dough should be soft but not sticky (It takes some hand mixing to incorporate the flour)

Chill 1-2 hours until firm.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 inch thichness. Cut out shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  If the dough starts sticking to the rolling pin, put it back in the refrigerator to cool it again.

Bake 10-15 minutes until cookies are lightly browned around the edges.

The shortbread spreads out around the edges as it cooks- I didn't remember that from the first time I made these in January because I used a round biscuit cutter then and the spreading just made it a true circle. So I recommend circles for these cookies! And they need to be thick in order to hold up. But still delicious!


Microwave Lemon Curd
I saw this recipe on TasteSpotting from http://www.2stews.com/2010/02/lemon-sunshine.html and it is DELICIOUS! She called it Lemon Sunshine for a reason! And, the best part is its super simple!

• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• zest of 3 lemons, finely grated
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

In a microwave-safe bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until smooth. Stir in lemon juice, lemon zest and butter. Cook in the microwave for one minute intervals, stirring after each minute until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the microwave, and pour into small sterile jars. Store for up to three weeks in the refrigerator.

Makes about 3 cups.

More pictures to come after I serve these at our church's women's brunch this morning!