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**