Olive Lemon Cookies

I had a tough day at work a couple weeks ago, so I amused myself by brainstorming sweet-savory cookie recipes. One idea I had was a cookie with oil-cured olives, herbes de Provence, and lemon. I thought it should have honey in it, maybe some brown sugar. Imagine my delight and surprise when Gourmet published their favorite cookie recipes online and included this fine specimen, the Honey Refrigerator Cookie. Rather than take the time to experiment, which I did not have with a cookie swap looming on the horizon, I figured I would just modify that recipe. With some good luck, it worked out well. There were many people both at work and the swap party who claimed to not like olives but they loved these cookies. At some point, I will play around and create my own recipe, but for now this recipe works well. You are free to use this recipe, however please be sure to give Gourmet some credit.

I am proud to report that everyone who tried these cookies raved about them!

Olive Lemon Cookies (yield about 4 dozen cookies)
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1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp dried herbes de Provence, finely minced
1/2 cup minced oil-cured olives (smaller, wrinkly kind)
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juice of one lemon
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add honey, brown sugar, and shortening to mixing bowl and cream. Add egg and mix until combined. Sift flour, soda and salt and add to wet ingredients. Add lemon zest, herbes, and olives to wet ingredients and mix all until combined. Shape the dough into a roll about 1 1/2" in diameter. Allow the dough to ripen for a day or two in the refrigerator. Freeze for one hour before you slice with a very sharp knife. Slightly reshape into rounds and bake for about 10 minutes, depending on oven, or until cookie is slightly golden on edges. Underbake these slightly.

Mix lemon juice and powdered sugar to make glaze. When cookies are cooled, drizzle glaze and let dry. Explain to your friends these cookies aren't as weird as they think. Enjoy.



Notes:

My oven temperature is spot on, but it seems to be a little slow, unless my oven and oven thermometer are in cahoots. Things always seem to take a little longer to bake. Bake one or two cookies first to get an idea of how wacky your oven might be.

Olives are salty. Really salty. I highly recommend that you soak your olives in cold water for a couple hours ahead of time. Also, be sure the olives you buy are just oil cured olives, no fancy pants marinade. If they do have some crazy marinade, soak for a couple more hours.

The Gourmet recipe calls for a hot oven, 400 degrees and 10-12 minutes. My first batch was overcooked.