Super Classy Fresh Lemon Cookies & Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

I have a lot going on in the next few days. My brother and my boyfriend's brother are getting married on adjacent days, Karl is moving up from Christchurch (that godforsaken shaky crime-hole) for good, I need to learn how to wrap a sari and a slew of relatives (including my really cool grandmother from New York!) are arriving. On top of that, I had a neurologist appointment today where I hilariously failed several balance tests and was officially declared almost probably quite brain damaged. Snaps for me.


It's all pretty stressful so I spent all afternoon baking in an effort to try and realign my chakras; and here's what I produced. Full recipes after the jump or those of you who are interested.

SUPER CLASSY LEMON COOKIES

The reason I refer to these as 'classy' is because unlike most of the things I produce; they aren't dipped in chocolate, stuffed with candy and frosted in three shades of buttercream. I made these by adjusting a German recipe; they use 1 part ground almond to 1 part flour so they're very crumbly and not too sweet. Plus, if you eat them straight out of the oven the lemons are really juicy. Fun bonus fact: These awesome huge lemons came from my grandparents tree, who have lots of spare because they really only use them for gin. My family is badass.

BOSTON CREAM PIE CUPCAKES

These may not be the most ornate cupcakes I've posted on this blog, but they're definitely one of the most delicious. They're a moist, yellow cake filled with vanilla custard then topped with chocolate ganache. The tricky bit is getting the custard to just he right consistency so it'll hold firm and not drip out the sides- no cheating by putting them in the fridge. The fridge is your enemy when it comes to baked goods. It will suck the delicious moistness out of your cakes like some kind of horrible frosty vampire machine. Never put cake in the fridge. Never.

So, it was a successful baking evening. All of the new recipes I tried turned out well. Yay me. Maybe I'm not so brain damaged after all.

xoxo (recipes after the jump)

SUPER CLASSY FRESH LEMON SLICE COOKIES

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter

2 tablespoons lemon zest

1 egg

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 cups AP flour

2 cups ground almonds

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

4 lemons sliced extremely thin.

Some granulated sugar for sprinkling over the lemon slices

Flour for rolling out dough.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180, spray two baking sheets with cooking oil.

Beat the butter, zest and egg until creamy.

Add the powdered sugar, flour, then the almonds.

Add lemon juice and mix until just combined.

Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Slice the lemons as thinly as you can. I got my sister to do it. I don’t know if your sister is as good as cutting stuff as mine, though. Your call.

Roll out the dough oll out on a floured surface and use a glass to cut circles. Try to get them exactly the size of the lemon slices.

Gently press a slice of lemon into each circle.

Sprinkle lemon slices with sugar.

Bake 15 minutes until golden brown.

Boom! Cookies!

BOSTON CREAM PIE CUPCAKES

I used THIS recipe; with some changes.

- No cooking oil in the ganche. That's just unhealthy and unnecessary. WWJD?*

- I used THIS recipe for the custard. Packet custard is not necessary- it will never taste as good.

-In the custard recipe, I used fresh scraped vanilla beans instead of vanilla essence. If you're not willing to go that far, at least use vanilla paste, you cheapskate. 

*What Would Jamie (Oliver) Do? :D