Submitted by Katherine Evans

About the cook: I am 21 years old, studying psychology at the university of Rhode Island. I have been baking for basically my entire life, but recently, I have been using it as a way to destress from school. I especially love baking for others. I usually bake for my swim and dive team that I am a part of. They always appreciate it when I bring baked goods to team events!

About the dish: These cookies are a fan favorite of my teammates. They are a great cookie to make to break into spring with the fresh fruit! They are super soft cookies with a great lemony flavor and a wonderfully sweet blackberry glaze and toasted coconut for garnish!

National Origin: USA

Serves: 25

Estimated Time: 30 to 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Cookie
⅔ C white sugar
⅓ C brown sugar
12 TBSP country crock baking sticks (salted)
2 large eggs
1 Brick room temp. Cream cheese
1 TBSP vanilla Extract
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
2 ⅔ C flour
1 ½ TSP baking powder
1 TSP Baking Soda
1 ½ TBSP cornstarch
Glaze
1 small carton of blackberries
1 ½ TSP vanilla extract
½ C White sugar
1 TBSP Cornstarch

Preparation:

Cookie

-In a large mixing bowl, Cream the sugar and butter together till light and fluffy, then mix in the cream cheese till fully incorporated
-Add eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture. Mix well to combine
-Add lemon zest and juice, mix till combined
-In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cornstarch.
-Slowly, add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, using a rubber spatula. Fold mixtures together, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure that everything is mixed together and there are no lumps. Batter will be more runny than normal cookie batter. If you think it is too runny, add a tablespoon of flour
-Cover tightly and place in freezer to chill while you preheat the oven to 350
-Line baking sheet with parchment paper. After oven is preheated, pull the chilled dough out of the freezer and using two large spoons, drop dough onto paper, approximately ½ inch apart. Batter will make around 26 large cookies.
-Bake cookies for around 10-13 minutes. Bottoms will be slightly brown when done. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing
-Chill batter between batches

Blackberry glaze

-In a small saucepan, combine blackberries, sugar, and vanilla extract.
-In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with a little bit of warm water, mix together so there are no lumps. Add cornstarch mixture to saucepan.
-Turn stove on to a medium low heat, mixing frequently. When mixture starts to boil, crush blackberries to release all juice. Keep mashing the blackberries until they are no longer in big chunks
-Let the mixture simmer to thicken up for about 5 minutes. Mixing frequently
-Pull the mixture off the stove and strain it
-Put the strained mixture in the freezer to cool down.
-If desired, add powdered sugar before glazing the cookies.
-Dip cookies face down into the blackberry glaze, add toasted coconut after you dip the cookies
-Enjoy! 🙂

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