Edible gifts: Lemon chewies with honey

When you’re dropping in to see people and you’ve got your children in tow, the best thing I can do to make up for the ensuing mayhem is bring edible gifts. Jams and chutneys work well, but a bag of biscuits is an instant winner.

For recipe inspiration I reached for a new American cookery book I got sent to review called The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando. It’s jammed full of biscuits for every taste and occasion, so keep your eyes peeled for my review as it’d make a great Christmas gift for any budding bakers.

The lemon chewies are easy to throw together, have a fab flavour combo of lemon, honey and a bit of salt. I added a touch of lemon juice to the icing for some extra zing. Be warned though, these are the kind of biscuits you can snaffle very quickly without realising what you’re doing.

Just as well you get a big batch of cookies out of the dough…

Lemon Chewies (The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando)

Makes 3 dozen

INGREDIENTS 

250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
120g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
110g clear honey

For the icing

150g icing sugar
tbsp lemon juice

METHOD

1. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the lemon zest and mix to incorporate.

3. In a separate bowl, crack in the egg and add the honey. Stir together until well mixed, then add to the butter mixture gradually until combined.

4. Add the flour mixture a bit at a time, fully mixing each batch in before adding the next. Once you have a smooth batter scoop teaspoons of the mixture onto lightly greased baking sheets about 2 inches apart and gently press down.

5. Bake for 10-12 mins, until the cookies are set and golden. Leave to cool for a few minutes then transfer with a pie slice to a cooling rack.

6. To make the icing put the icing sugar in a bowl and mix the lemon juice in to form a thick glaze. If it’s not runny enough add tiny amounts of water until you get the right consistency. If it goes too far just add more icing sugar.

7. You can either drizzle the icing over with a spoon, or fill a disposable icing bag with it, snip off the end and create a more uniformed look. Leave to set and then package.

I used presentation bags and ribbon from Lakeland  – very simple but makes all the difference.