Lemon Cream Choux with Crispy Lavender Craquelin

High Altitude Fluffy Cookies - Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

These are the fluffiest cookies I've ever eaten.  I live in Colorado, and at 5000 ft elevation, that is kind of saying something.  Their texture is like eat tiny pillow cakes, but the crust of a cookie.  Even burnt they have a fluffy, yet burnt taste. I personally like my cookies kind of hard, and one step away from burnt, but everyone around me loves soft cookies. I mean loves them, and I feel they are under-cooked cookies.  But these Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies have convinced me that there's a middle ground, cookies that taste fully cooked, but feel like tiny pillows of lemon.  They aren't too sweet, or sour, kind of a wonderful marriage between the two flavors making one of the most impressive cookies I've ever eaten.   

NOTE: This is for a high altitude recipe.   

Ingredients

Cookies

• 2½  cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1¾ cups granulated sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 8 ounces plain cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Lemon Glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I used 3)
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 1½ teaspoons lemon zest
• 1-2 teaspoons water (only need if the icing is too thick)

Preparation

1. Cream the butter, sugar and cream cheese together. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix until you get a creamy texture.

2. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside

3. Add flour mixture into the wet dough mixture a little at a time until incorporated. Dough will be sticky. If it’s more on the liquid side rather then tacky dough add a little more flour a Tablespoon at a time.  If it’s more like bread dough, then add more lemon juice, or if you don’t want it that sour, water will work. I like lemon.

4. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes - 1 hour. Really you want it cold enough to hold it’s shape while baking.  I found 1 hour gave me a nice set cookie.

5. When the cookies are on the last 15 minutes or so in the refrigerator preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.

6. Cover some baking sheets with parchment paper.  The cookies will get really sticky as they warm up. I wet my hands and pull out lumps, & shape into balls.  I shoot for about 1 ½ tablespoon size balls. But size as desired, just be aware they will flatten & spread a little.

 

7. Bake for 14-17 mins, mine were 16 minutes. Rotate the sheets halfway for more even baking. You will only see a slightly golden edge when they are done. They stay pretty pale unless they are completely burnt.  

8. Place the cookies on a cooling rack.  

9. Prepare the glaze. Add all the ingredients into a bowl, with the lemon juice last.  Add the lemon juice slowly incorporating it as you do. When the consistency is one step away from syrup they’re good to go.  If it remains too thick you can add water or more lemon juice to soften it. If it's too runny as more powdered sugar.

10. Once the cookies have cooled, place the cooling rack with the cookies on it above a cookie sheet to catch all the dripping and glaze.