Frosted Pineapple Cookies

All the summer tourists are now back home. If you have ever lived in a tourist area, you will find that the residing population always have nicknames for the tourists. In Florida, we always called them "snowbirds". That is due to a lot of people visiting from the northern states who have very little exposure to the sun. The north has their days where they use nicknames as well. You will often hear the term of "leaf peepers."

With that being stated, just like the "snowbirds", the summer recipes will be gone until next year. This marks the last one. Even though it is still hot in Texas, I will comply with the calendar seasons. For this year, the "official" first day of fall is September 23rd. Goodbye to citrus and berries and hello ginger and spice.

To close out the summer, I chose a cookie recipe that has a buttery base with chunks of pineapple. It uses crushed pineapple instead of dried pineapple. Also, the frosting on top incorporates pineapple juice and lemon zest for an extra pop of fruity flavor. This recipe makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies. As a reminder, the recipe has not been altered but there are important tips and notes at the end to help you succeed when creating these. Now let's get to it....

Frosted Pineapple Cookies
adapted from Copycat Recipe website

Ingredients/ Cookies
1 egg
1 8oz can of crushed pineapple
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup packed brown sugar

Ingredients/Frosting
3 tbs reserved juice from canned pineapple
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp lemon zest

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. The preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Using a stand mixer, fill the bowl with sugar and butter. Beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, stopping periodically to scrape down the interior sides of the bowl. You now have a cookie batter.

Take out a small bowl and a sieve. Open the canned pineapple and pour into the sieve, letting the juices drain out into the bowl. Reserve 3 tbs of the juice for use in the the frosting. Empty the contents of the sieve into the cookie batter. Then add the vanilla extract and egg. Beat the mixture until all is blended smoothly.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and set aside. In another bowl, sift together the baking powder, baking soda, flour and salt.  Using 1/3 of the sifted ingredients, fold into the batter.  Continue with the process in two more increments, until all the dry ingredients are mixed into the batter.

Using a scoop, drop batter onto prepared cookie sheet. Since the cookies do spread, space the batter lumps about 2 inches apart. Place cookie sheet in oven and bake until golden on bottom and around edges. This should take about 17-20 minutes. Transfer baked cookies to cooling rack.

Once the cookies have completely cooled, it is time to make the frosting.  Mix together the zest and 2 tbs of juice in a medium size bowl. Sift the powdered sugar into the same bowl and then mix with a  spatula. Blend in more juice to make a spreadable frosting. Frost cookies by drizzling on top. Let frosting set up before storing or stacking cookies.

Tips and Notes:
1. The spreading of the cookie when baking is a result of the amount of juice that remains after the pineapple is drained. I wanted thicker cookies, so after draining, I pressed out a lot of the juice. Also, I saw one complaint on the original recipe stating that the cookies ran all over the pan-too much liquid.

2. Reserve all the juice from the canned pineapple. This way you can have the opportunity to make more frosting if you prefer. The original recipe shows just a drizzle on the cookies instead of being frosted like the picture above. I definitely made more frosting.
                           **LAST YEAR:Pastry Project:Croissant Dough**

Citrus Snap Cookies

There are some treats that never really appear unless it is the holidays. Cut out cookies usually are reserved for the Christmas holidays. The shapes made are usually those of the occasion: bells, Christmas trees, gingerbread men...etc. I guess because of the time involved, it is only the holidays that motivates some people to make these type of cookies.

Well, just to be clear....these particular cut out cookies are not for the Christmas holidays. Made with a myriad of fruit zest and juices, they are most appropriate around spring or summer. That is when citrus fruit is the most plentiful and perfectly ripe.

No holiday to motivate you? Consider it a holiday when the kids go off to school! Or better yet, make the kids first day a little bit nicer by tucking a few of these away in their lunch bag.

The fun part about cut out cookies is the opportunity to make them unique. Choose whatever shape and decorate however you want. The cookies pictured above are in the shape of a butterfly, have just white glaze with sprinkles. With all the different colors of sugars, gel pens and different miniature decorations ( I even saw little "minions") the style possibilities are limitless. This recipe makes about 2 - 2 1/2 dozen.

Citrus Snap Cookies
adapted from Orlando Edible Feast 
 
Ingredients/Cookies
3 tbs fresh lemon juice
3 tbs fresh orange juice
3 tbs fresh lime juice
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp orange zest
2 tsp lime zest
1 cup or 2 sticks softened butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients/ Glaze & Topping
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 2 tbs pasteurized egg whites

For the cookies, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Pull out 2 small bowls. Mix the three kinds of zest together in one bowl. In the other bowl, combine all juices.

Fill the bowl of a stand mixer with the sugar and butter. Cream together, beating on medium high for about 3 minutes. Then add the juices, zest and salt. Beat until evenly distributed.

Remove bowl from mixer stand and fold in one cup of flour. Once blended, fold in the additional cup. Place a long sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Gather dough into a ball and place in the middle of the plastic sheet. Flatten into a disc, about 1/2 an inch thick. Fold plastic over the dough, making sure all is covered. Then place in refrigerator to chill for about an hour for the dough to firm up.

While dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place a piece of parchment paper on a flat surface and dust with flour, this will be your rolling area. Also, place parchment paper underneath a cooling rack.

Once dough is firm, take out of refrigerator and divide in half. Keep one to work with and put the other, covered, back in the refrigerator. Roll dough out onto prepared surface, ending with an 1/8 inch thickness of dough. Cut into desired shapes and transfer to parchment lined baking sheets, spacing about 1/2 inch apart. Then place filled baking sheet in refrigerator. Dough will need to chill again for about 10 minutes.

After the chilling time is complete, place sheet in oven and let cookies bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until cookies are a light golden color on the edges and the bottom. Remove cookie sheet and place on cooling rack. After about 2 minutes, transfer cookies to rack. Let cool completely before frosting or decorating.

Repeat the process of forming and baking with the dough scraps and the remaining dough in the refrigerator.

For the glaze, mix all ingredients together and spoon glaze onto tops of cookies. After about 3 minutes, put topping of your choice onto glaze (sprinkles, sugar, dragees, etc.). Give the glaze time to completely harden prior to storage.

Tips and Notes:
1. The standard way to form these type of cookies, is to cut them out and then transfer to baking sheet. Instead of this method, you can roll out dough on parchment paper that fits the interior of the baking sheet. After rolling, parchment is then transferred to cookie sheet and shapes are cut out. Place pan in freezer for 10 minutes. Pull out pan and remove cold dough from around the cut shapes. Then place in oven to bake. By eliminating the transfer step from the standard process, you eliminate any possibility of losing the shape of the cookie.

2. The glaze can be as thin or thick as you want. The thicker it is, the less it will run off and drip on the parchment below the rack.
**LAST YEAR:JD's Birthday Cake**                    **2 YEARS AGO: Grand Marnier Cake**