Lemon Basil Sugar Cookies

Happy May! We’re entering our second, maybe third spring over here in the Midwest 😉 and I’m hoping this one is here to stay! How has your spring weather been? Last week it was a cold and rainy which is always a good backdrop for baking however.

Recently, we spent a long weekend in Frankfort to get the house ready for summer fun. We cleaned up the hydrangeas, relocated a small section of our HUGE purple lilac tree, filled all of our planters with cold weather blooms, and planted wildflowers throughout. We’ll be back in a few weeks time and I cannot wait to see how spring has sprung! ❤

Whenever we are there, my husband calls me Snow White because of the animal friends I have made. We have a large, lovely pine tree on the side of our house where we have a multitude of feeders that collect birds, squirrels, chipmunks, bunnies and sometimes deer. Since spending more time in Frankfort, I’ve started to get into bird identification. Some of my favorite bird visitors are Chickadees (I call them sing-songs), Blue Jays, Cardinals, Morning Doves, and the large woody-the-woodpecker style Pileated Woodpecker. The chipmunk family that’s lived on our property must have been there forever. There’s this one little guy – I call him Chip of course, that has learned to trust me and understand that overtime we’re there, he’s gonna get extra food. My sweet little chip comes to our side door in our kitchen and sits at the step sometimes and I just adore him. Our tree and all of it’s sheltered creatures remind me of a sweet little enchanted woodland.

During last weekends cold and rainy forecast, I channeled these enchanting little cookies to keep me in the spring spirit while we await the real spring weather!

Prep Time: 10 minutes // Inactive Time: 1 hour // Cook Time: 10 minutes // Decorating Time: ~ 2 hours // Yield: ~24 cookies

Cookie Ingredients:

6 tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
Zest and juice from 1 large lemon
Heaping handful of basil, finely chopped
2 cups flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Royal Icing Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbs meringue powder
4 tbs water

Using a mixer, combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, followed by the vanilla, zest, and juice, and mix until well-combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together. Then add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients; mixing together until dough forms.
Remove the dough from the bowl and wrap it in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare two baking sheets.
On a floured surface, section the dough in half for ease of rolling. Roll out the dough about 1/4 inch thick, then use cookie cutters of your choice, or make your own!
Place the cookies in the oven to bake for 10-12 minutes until very light golden brown, then remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Add Royal Icing ingredients into 1 large bowl and mix together until well-combined. Prepare your royal icing colors by mixing icing/food coloring gels together in separate bowls, then place them into piping bags until the cookies are cool enough to decorate.

Happy Spring, enjoy!