Kitchen Yogi Lemon Cookies

I may not care for a cookie-cutter home or a cookie-cutter marriage, but I certainly do love cookie-cutters. Recently, I received a cookie-cutter in the mail, and although I was expecting it to arrive, I was not sure what I was waiting for. All I was told was that it was a “yoga” cookie-cutter; an array of visuals flooded my mind, but I still was not sure what a yoga cookie-cutter would be. When it did come, I saw that it was an adorable miniature yogi sitting in lotus pose: its actual name is The Kitchen Yogi. I my first thought upon opening the package was, “what kind of cookie will I make out of this?”


What kind of cookie would be worthy of symbolizing enlightenment? These lemon cookies are a good contender, I think. The original recipe was very non-nourishing, so I made some adjustments in order to make them better suited to a yogi. And I had one of my yogi friends try the cookies out; he enjoyed the fresh lemon flavor, the lightness of the cookie, and of course, their shape.

I refrigerated the dough for an hour, which hardened it up nicely, but it warmed up quickly in my hands and the warmer the dough became, the more difficult to work with. I also had some trouble with the arms of the little yogi breaking off, but the extra care is worth it for these cookies. I would be interested to see how others decorate their yogis (of course, it could be a yogini instead), and hopefully will arrive at some inspiration before I made these cookies, or bring out this cookie-cutter, again. The Kitchen Yogi also comes with its own recipes for gluten free cookies and organic sugar cookies, either of which could be great to try next time.

Lemon Cut-Out Cookies
Yield: About 5 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. lemon extract
2 tsp. grated lemon zest

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk, extracts, and lemon zest and mix until well-blended.

3. Slowly add the flour mixture, mixing to combine well.

4. Divide the dough into 4 round sections and wrap each section in plastic wrap, or place in a glass Tupperware container. Refrigerate at least 1 hour until firm.

5. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Take one section of dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes with the cookie cutters of your choice. Repeat with the other 3 dough sections.

6. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned at the edges. Cool completely on wire racks.