Lemon Scented Olive Oil Cookies | Secret Recipe Club

Spring seems to be in the air in the Bay Area.  The weather topped almost 70 degrees on Saturday.  Despite lemons being available year round in the Bay Area, I tend to associate them with spring, since they are bright yellow, fresh, and vibrant. 

Today is the reveal for group C of the Secret RecipeClub.  If you are not familiar with it, let me enlighten you for a moment.  The Secret Recipe Club is a group talented food bloggers who love to share recipes.  Once a month we are paired with another food blogger to select a recipe from their blog to make and we all post on the same day.  The really fun part is to see who received your blog and what they chose.

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For February I was paired with Manuela from Manu’sMenu.  The really fun part of this pairing is that Manuela had my blog in April 2012 and chose my Coconut-Chocolate Chip ShortbreadCookies.  Now it is my turn to tour her blog to select a wonderful recipe to make.  After many times viewing her blog, I finally made a decision to make her Lemon and Olive Oil Cookies.  They simply intrigued me. 

Manuela was born and raised in Milan Italy by Sicilian parents, which is a large part of why the direction of her blog is authentic Italian recipes.  In 2006, she relocated to Sydney Australia with her hubby Clint and raises their two daughters Victoria and Georgia there.  She loves Australia so much, that she is now a naturalized Australian citizen.  Manuela loves traveling which influences her cooking along with her families Italian recipes that have been passed down from generations.  Please take a few moments to browse her extensive collections of tasty recipes – I am sure you will find several you will bookmark to make.

After carefully reading her recipe for these lemon and olive oil cookies, I determined I needed to translate it into measurements that folks in the united states would more easily identify with.  I adapted the recipe but kept the integrity of the ingredients.  Weighing ingredients is a very accurate way to bake and many may prefer this. This is a unique dough in that it is doesn’t use butter, which in turn makes it a bit greasy if you will.  When you roll out the dough, have plenty of flour on hand to keep the dough from sticking to your board and rolling pin.  The beauty of the olive oil is that you have an extremely tender dough and a rich unique flavor.  I decided to create a lemon sugar to top each cookie with to add a bit of sweetness along with more lemon flavor.  The result was one divine cookie!  Enjoy!

Lemon Scented Olive Oil Cookies

Makes approximately 30 cookies

8 fluid oz. Olive Oil

2 fluid oz. Water

6 Egg yolks

2 ½ C. Flour

½ C. Cornstarch

½ C. Sugar

Grated zest of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon Vanilla

¼ teaspoon Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a stand mixer, add the egg yolks and water and  mix well with the whisk attachment.  Next slowly add the olive oil into the egg yolks until the mixture is thickened.

Add the sugar, salt, lemon zest and vanilla and whisk for a couple minutes.  Slowly add the cornstarch to the mixture until combined.  Finally, slowly add the flour until well combined.  Take the mixture out of the bowl and knead by hand for a couple minutes on a well floured surface.  Make it into a ball and cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 30 to 60 minutes.

Use a large board that is well floured to roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thick.  Use a ravioli cutter to make 2 by 2 inch squares.  Place them on a cookie sheet and top with about a teaspoon of the lemon sugar.  Recipe below.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown around the edges.  Let cool on cookie sheet for at least a minute, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

Lemon Sugar

¾ C. Granulated Sugar

Zest of one lemon

Mix together in a bowl until well combined.  Set aside until you cut the cookies out.