Cooking
Page 254 in the old book / page 273 in the new book
I like these cookies, but I'm not convinced they're worth the effort. Don't get me wrong - they were very good and went over well in the office, but the dough was difficult to handle. They're basically sugar cookies with two big things going for them: their looks and their lemony flavor.
I love the idea of the fan shape, which is particularly suited to serving with ice cream. I also really enjoyed the lemon flavor (from lemon zest). Beyond that, I didn't think they were any better than my favorite sugar cookie, Maida's Plain Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies. I think I would choose to modify that recipe slightly next time I'm looking for a lemony and/or fan-shaped sugar cookie rather than making this one again.
The fan shape is achieved by rolling a portion of the dough just large enough to cut out a circle 8 inches in diameter (I used an 8-inch cake pan as a guide). You can use a pastry cutter to get a ruffly edge, though the dough for this recipe is so soft it tends to accumulate in the little notches of the cutter. The circle is then cut into 8 wedges and radiating lines are pressed into each wedge (I used a bench scraper to do this).
The pretty little fan shape is definitely worth the trouble, I just don't think it needs to be quite so much trouble :-) Here's the panel...
Suzanne: "Delicious! Without knowing the name of the cookie, I said to a fellow staff member, “how attractive; they look like fans”. I could smell and taste the lemon flavor in the cookie and they had just the right amount of sugar on top. The cookie was delightful. Rating - 5.0"
Denny: "Surprisingly good. They are very nice-looking but I could tell they were just a sugar cookie so I was disappointed. The lemon zest changed my mind completely. With the minus 1 no chocolate penalty, I give them a 3. Rating - 3.0"
Laura: "Light, buttery, and delicious! Lovely light flavor of lemon with sugar crystals sprinkled on top. Yum! Rating - 5.0"
Terri: "Delicious and artfully beautiful! These would be the perfect cookie to serve with raspberry sorbet! Just the right amount of lemon zest (and I really like lemon in cookies). Rating - 4.0"
Overall rating by the panel - 4.3
Next week - Swedish Fried Twists
Nutrition Facts
- Mondays With Maida - Plain Old-fashioned Sugar Cookies
Page 193 in the old book / page 221 in the new book Every time I make these - and I've made them many, many times - I am always a little surprised by how good they are. There is no secret ingredient or even anything remotely unusual about them, they...
- Mondays With Maida - Caraway Hardtack
Page 182 in the old book / page 214 in the new book These cookies are very similar to last week's Hot Butter Wafers, the only differences being that they have considerably more sugar and are sprinkled with caraway seeds. They are sweet, hard and...
- Mondays With Maida - Tropical Sour-cream Cookies
Page 176 in the old book / page 209 in the new book Lemon juice and the grated rind of both lemon and orange give these soft cookies a very nice citrus flavor, but they have an unfortunately bland appearance. They need something to pretty them up - perhaps...
- Mondays With Maida - Caraway Crisps
Page 147 in the old book / page 180 in the new book I have to admit, I had my doubts about these cookies going in. I had never used caraway in cookies before and don't generally associate caraway with sweets. I envisioned a repeat of the poppy seed...
- Mondays With Maida - Icebox Nut Cookies
Page 144 in the old book / page 178 in the new book I thought these were very good. They are lemony, very crunchy, and loaded with nuts. I used pecans, but walnuts could also be used. The recipe gave several options for shaping the dough for slicing....
Cooking
Mondays with Maida - French Sugar Fans
Page 254 in the old book / page 273 in the new book
I like these cookies, but I'm not convinced they're worth the effort. Don't get me wrong - they were very good and went over well in the office, but the dough was difficult to handle. They're basically sugar cookies with two big things going for them: their looks and their lemony flavor.
I love the idea of the fan shape, which is particularly suited to serving with ice cream. I also really enjoyed the lemon flavor (from lemon zest). Beyond that, I didn't think they were any better than my favorite sugar cookie, Maida's Plain Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies. I think I would choose to modify that recipe slightly next time I'm looking for a lemony and/or fan-shaped sugar cookie rather than making this one again.
The fan shape is achieved by rolling a portion of the dough just large enough to cut out a circle 8 inches in diameter (I used an 8-inch cake pan as a guide). You can use a pastry cutter to get a ruffly edge, though the dough for this recipe is so soft it tends to accumulate in the little notches of the cutter. The circle is then cut into 8 wedges and radiating lines are pressed into each wedge (I used a bench scraper to do this).
The pretty little fan shape is definitely worth the trouble, I just don't think it needs to be quite so much trouble :-) Here's the panel...
Suzanne: "Delicious! Without knowing the name of the cookie, I said to a fellow staff member, “how attractive; they look like fans”. I could smell and taste the lemon flavor in the cookie and they had just the right amount of sugar on top. The cookie was delightful. Rating - 5.0"
Denny: "Surprisingly good. They are very nice-looking but I could tell they were just a sugar cookie so I was disappointed. The lemon zest changed my mind completely. With the minus 1 no chocolate penalty, I give them a 3. Rating - 3.0"
Laura: "Light, buttery, and delicious! Lovely light flavor of lemon with sugar crystals sprinkled on top. Yum! Rating - 5.0"
Terri: "Delicious and artfully beautiful! These would be the perfect cookie to serve with raspberry sorbet! Just the right amount of lemon zest (and I really like lemon in cookies). Rating - 4.0"
Overall rating by the panel - 4.3
Next week - Swedish Fried Twists
Nutrition Facts
- Mondays With Maida - Plain Old-fashioned Sugar Cookies
Page 193 in the old book / page 221 in the new book Every time I make these - and I've made them many, many times - I am always a little surprised by how good they are. There is no secret ingredient or even anything remotely unusual about them, they...
- Mondays With Maida - Caraway Hardtack
Page 182 in the old book / page 214 in the new book These cookies are very similar to last week's Hot Butter Wafers, the only differences being that they have considerably more sugar and are sprinkled with caraway seeds. They are sweet, hard and...
- Mondays With Maida - Tropical Sour-cream Cookies
Page 176 in the old book / page 209 in the new book Lemon juice and the grated rind of both lemon and orange give these soft cookies a very nice citrus flavor, but they have an unfortunately bland appearance. They need something to pretty them up - perhaps...
- Mondays With Maida - Caraway Crisps
Page 147 in the old book / page 180 in the new book I have to admit, I had my doubts about these cookies going in. I had never used caraway in cookies before and don't generally associate caraway with sweets. I envisioned a repeat of the poppy seed...
- Mondays With Maida - Icebox Nut Cookies
Page 144 in the old book / page 178 in the new book I thought these were very good. They are lemony, very crunchy, and loaded with nuts. I used pecans, but walnuts could also be used. The recipe gave several options for shaping the dough for slicing....