For those of you who have been fol­lowing this column from the beginning, you may remember that if Amy could only have three ingredients to always use during cooking, lemon would be one of them. Indeed, one of Amy’s first recipes ever recorded (from about the age of six) was for homemade lemonade, which had about a teaspoon of sugar and the juice of four lemons. Basically anything with that zesty sour lem­on taste is good in Amy’s book. Therefore, when Sophie suggested baking lemon sugar cookies, Amy couldn’t wait.

Lemon is one of those great fla­vors that can be added to salty, sweet and even spicy dishes. We have done a fair number of dishes that involved lemon in main courses, but we want­ed to use it somewhere that it always shines: dessert. Lemon perfectly com­pliments sweetness, making desserts refresh­ing after heavy meals. Added to a sugar cook­ie, lemon does just this. These cookies are easy to make and wonderful to have around. We can’t wait to make another batch.

Lemon Sugar Cookies

¾ cup of sugar

½ cup of butter, softened

½ tablespoon lemon zest

½ cup of freshly squeezed meyer lemon

juice (or regular lemon juice)

½ teaspoon of vanilla

1 egg

1 ½ cups of flour

½ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of baking soda

½ teaspoon of cream of tartar

½ cup of sugar

Preheat the oven to 350?. Lay parchment paper on baking sheets and spray with Pam. Mix all of the ingredients together until well combined. If the dough is too sticky and soft, chill it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour.

Place the ½ cup of sugar onto a plate or into a bowl. Roll one-inch balls of dough in the sugar and place on parch­ment paper about one inch apart from each other. Bake for 15 minutes or un­til the cookies are firm to the touch. Let cool and enjoy!

These are absolutely delicious. You need to make them now. They work as a perfect dessert treat because they are not too heavy after a good meal, but they per­fectly satisfy that need for something sweet after dinner. Or after a trip to the library, or after a walk, or whenever you walk through the kitchen and see them tempting you on the counter. In fact, these cookies were snatched up by our housemates within hours. Their only set­back? Once you try one it’s hard not to have three more.

They combine the classic taste of a sugar cookie with the re­freshingly sour hint of lemon. The outside is crisp and the in­side is chewy, leading to the perfect cookie texture. If you’re feel­ing really bold you could try this recipe with limes, or whip up a lemon frosting and create an indulgent lemon cookie sandwich. Using Meyer lemons will give the cookies a sweeter taste versus normal lemons, which are more tart. Either way, you can’t go wrong with these cookies. We hope that you enjoy!