-Allie

**This post originally appeared on my other blog, YinMomYangMom.com.**

Do you ever bring your kids grocery shopping with you?  Do you also find that you end up spending twice as much as you normally would?  And find yourself with some weird food item that nobody likes and you have no idea what to do with it but you don’t want to throw it away because it cost like $6.99 for half an ounce?

Freeze Dried Raspberries

Kind of an exaggeration, btw, but still.  These things are so intensely sour I thought my kids faces were going to turn inside out.

But look at that gorgeous color!  And I have been wanting to come up with another interesting riff on the basic sugar cookie

So, in this post I will be showing you how I baked me some Raspberry Lemon Sugar Cookies, and then I’ll show you a few photos of how I decorated them for my babies!  Lately I’ve been all about the baking blogs, and I’ve found a few that I really love, so here are my favorites:

www.inkatrinaskitchen.com
www.sweetsugarbelle.com
www.bakeat350.com
www.sweetopia.net
www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com
www.cookiesandcups.com

If you are interested in baking and/or decorating they offer some great recipes and tutorials.  I’ve learned so much from these talented gals!

This recipe is based on the Basic Sugar Cookies from www.inkatrinaskitchen.com.  Be sure to check out her yummy blog!  She’s really funny and creative too!

Raspberry Lemon Sugar Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter
1.2 ounces unsweetened & unsulfured freeze-dried raspberries
zest of one lemon
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
juice of one lemon
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour

Start by setting out the butter to soften.  I hate having to plan ahead like that, really I just want to be able to bake as soon as the urge strikes, but unfortunately it’s sometimes a necessary evil.  However, you can speed up the process by first cubing up your butter into smaller pieces.

Next, dump the bag of raspberries into the blender or food processor, and grind them into a fine powder.

Now, put on your dust mask and remove the lid.

Just kidding.  Kinda.  No, really, I like blowing pink stuff out of my nose.  It’s fun.

Put the pink dust in the bowl of your mixer, along with the sugar, lemon zest, and butter.  I had some trouble getting it all out of my blender, so I used a dry basting brush to help things along.

Cream it all together, and add the egg, vanilla, and lemon juice.

Add in the flour and baking powder, and you’re all set to roll!

I use these nifty rolling pin bands to get a perfectly even thickness of 3/8″.

Rolling dough between layers of parchment is my new best friend.  I can’t believe I ever messed around with bench flour!  *sigh*  I once was lost, but now am found…

Cut ’em out and into a 350 degree oven they go!

Cooking time will depend upon the size of your cookies but mine averaged about 12 minutes.  Don’t let the edges get too brown!

People are constantly asking me how I find time for cookie baking with two active toddlers.  Here is the answer:

dough scraps & the Press Dough Cookie Factory

Let the cookies cool completely and then they’re ready for some snazzy decoration!

As you can probably see, the baking process dulls the color down a bit.  But it’s still really pretty and different!  And a delicious take on a classic, with a super-special flavor that’s especially great in the summertime!

And now for the eye candy:

Little Einsteins Cookies

Can I just say, character cookies are HARD!  I think I spent as much time toothpicking icing around as I did piping it.  And I experienced every royal icing pitfall in the book: streaks, bleeding, cratering, you name it.  A lot of cookies were eaten scrapped in this process.  Good thing they were out-of-this-world delicious!  Well, I learned a lot, one of the main things being, the simpler the design, the greater the likelihood that it will look perfectly flawless.

If you are that strange sort (like me) that enjoys looking at other people’s decorated cookies, I have more pics on my flickr photostream:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=sets.  Be sure to let me know what you think of them!