Take a Little Thyme...

On one of my trips to the local Farmer's Market, I bought myself a whole big bunch of potted herb plants. But the one that smelled the best, was the lemon thyme. I kept pinching the leaves and smelling my fingers...all the way home.

I had no real idea how or where I would use the thyme, but I figured anything that smells this good has GOT to taste good too. 

I love the smell, taste, and colour of lemons...especially in a dessert. But thyme? Could I get away with it? Hmmm...I say,"why not?" And so my taste buds started to tingle as I imagined my mother's snickerdoodle recipe transforming itself into a sugar cookie with a little lemon thyme. And well, I was right. They are delicious. And rather simple. So let's get started...

Cream together 1/2 cup of softened butter, with 3/4 cup white sugar...then add your egg and the seeds from 1 vanilla bean. (If you don't have beans in your pantry, use 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

Add 1 tsp of grated lemon zest...

And 1 Tbsp of lemon honey

(if you do not have lemon honey, add 1/2 tsp lemon juice to 1 Tbs of plain honey)

Mix it all well in your mixer or with a wooden spoon.

Finely chop 2 tsp of lemon thyme leaves and add to creamed butter, sugar, eggs, zest, and vanilla. 

Place in your flour sifter, 1 1/2 cups white flour, along with...

1/4 tsp each of kosher salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

Sift all together into a mixing bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and mix...

First, with a wooden spoon,

And then, get your hands in there and make a nice, squishy ball of dough.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in berry sugar...

Regular granulated sugar will work too, but I find it grittier on my teeth.

Place them on a parchment-covered cookie sheet...

Press them down with a fork...and bake at 375° for 8-10 min. 

If you find your cookies are turning brown too quickly, turn your heat down 25° and cook them closer to the 10 minute mark. The cookies will be golden on the bottom, but appear a wee bit undercooked on the top. They should still be fairly cream-coloured...not golden. If your cookies are a bit too puffy, press them down with the bottom of a glass when they are hot out of the oven.

And there you have it...a "snickerdoodle-turned lemon cookie" and all it needed was a little bit of thyme.

The Recipe in Short...

Lemon Thyme Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1 vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1Tbsp lemon honey

2 tsp lemon thyme leaves

1 1/2 cup flour 

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Cream butter, sugar. Beat in egg, vanilla, zest, honey, and thyme leaves.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir and form a dough ball.

Press down with a fork.

Make 1 inch dough balls, roll them in berry sugar, place on parchment-covered baking sheet and bake.

357°F for 8-10 min

(Oh, and I won't tell anyone if you don't add the lemon thyme...it's not easy to find on a whim. So just go ahead and make a lemon cookie if you can't bring yourself to wait!)

Enjoy! And thanks for stopping by!