Lemon Zest Cookies with White Chocolate and Toasted Coconut

Well, I'm at it again. Baking cookies, and this time they are for my friends Sue and Kim, who are both celebrating birthdays this week. We're going to meet for lunch tomorrow (today by the time this is posted), where I'll give them their gifts as well as this gift from my kitchen.

Must say, Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe gets no rest in my kitchen! This time, I changed it up a bit. I added the zest of one small lemon to the dough. I used a 3-inch round biscuit cutter to form the cookies, and spread the cooled cookies with melted white chocolate, and sprinkled toasted coconut (yep, I'm on a kick) over that! Rather than linking to the recipe in a previous post, below you find my adapted version. It's half the original recipe (in quantity) and made about sixteen 3-inch round cookies. Actually, it made 17, but one didn't look quite right so I had to eat it. Had to. (Love the addition of lemon!)

Here's the recipe:

Lemon Zest Cookies with White Chocolate and Toasted Coconut

Oven - 375 degrees Farenheit

inspired by Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe

1/2 cup soft butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

zest of one small lemon (about a tablespoon fresh zest - if using dried zest, use 1 teaspoon)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar well. Scrape bowl and mix again. Beat in one egg, extracts, and lemon rind.  Beat very well. Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well combined and scrape bowl to make sure it is all incorporated. No need to chill this dough - it's ready to go as soon as it's mixed. 

Turn dough out onto floured surface. Pat dough into a round and dust top and bottom with more flour.  Roll 1/4-inch thick and cut with 3-inch (or desired size) biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter (or any shape you want). Cut out cookies. Reroll scraps and cut more cookies until all the dough has been used up.  

Place cookie rounds on cookie sheet, about an inch apart. I fit a dozen on one sheet - 3 across, 4 down. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until bottoms just begin to brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Decorate with white chocolate and coconut:

1 cup white chocolate or white confection morsels, melted (three, 30-second intervals in the microwave did it for me).

toasted coconut (about 1/2 cup, spread on cookie sheet - 350 oven for 6-7 minutes - watch so it doesn't get too brown).

Spread about a teaspoon of melted white chocolate on one end of a cookie. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.  

Cool until white chocolate is set - a few hours, or you can speed it up in the fridge or freezer.

YUM!