Easy peasy lemon squeezy cookies

Super easy.  Super lemony.  This recipe scales up easily as well, if you're baking for a crowd (or if you want to give them away at Christmas time)

125gm butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
grated rind of one lemon 
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Line cookie sheets with baking paper.  Preheat oven to 190C.

Cream butter, sugar and lemon until light and fluffy.  Add egg and beat well until it's incorporated fully.  Add flour and baking powder and continue to beat into creamed mixture.  Roll teaspoonsful of mixture into balls and place on oven trays.  Flatten with the back of a fork or your thumb.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until cookies are just starting to brown.

No Butter Cookies

Not getting much done in the kitchen (or around the house!) this week as Mr B is working hard on getting the new bathroom finished.

Here's a great store cupboard recipe for spice cookies though - good for keeping hungry tradies happy at morning tea time AND dairy free.

1/2 cup oil (I use rice bran oil, but any vegetable oil is fine)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

pinch salt

Preheat oven to 200 C and line a couple of baking trays.

Mix ingredients in the order listed.  Roll into walnut sized balls and press lightly with your thumb to flatten if you like.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes.  Cool on tray for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Makes around 30 cookies.

Dairy and Wheat Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

My sister has been dairy and wheat free for a few years now. At various times I have been dairy free myself to help with the boys' reflux issues so these cookies were a real treat! You could replace the peanut butter with more spread and chocolate chips if you need this recipe to be nut free too.

Makes 24

125gm dairy free spread
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup rice flour (you can substitute 1/3 cup ground almonds/ 2/3 rice flour if you don't have enough flour)
1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup finely chopped dark chocolate - or more if you like
1/4 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 180, prepare two cookie sheets

Beat marg and sugar. Beat in peanut butter, then egg.

Sift in rice flour and baking powder. Mix till well combined. You can add choc chips at this point if you like OR

Bake for 8 minutes. Combine topping ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle evenly over biscuits. Bake for a further 2-3 mins.

Lactation Cookies

Someone needs to come up with a better name for these!

I've seen different variations of this recipe on more than one parenting website. Basically the idea is that they are packed full of ingredients to encourage milk supply and if you choose the right recipe they are also full of yummy things to keep you smiling while you're stuck on the couch breastfeeding a tiny, greedy milk-monster.

Makes 6 dozen slightly-larger-than-bite-sized cookies

250g butter (or dairy free spread if you're avoiding dairy)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons LSA (ground sunflower, linseed and almond mix)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour (rice flour works well if you are wheat free, otherwise plain flour is fine)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats, thick cut if you can get them
1 cup or more chocolate chips
2 tablespoons of brewers yeast (be generous. In Singapore you buy this at Brown Rice Paradise and I've also found it in the organic section in NTUC Fairprice).

Preheat oven to 190C, grease and line as many cookie sheets as will fit in your oven (I usually have two going at a time with this recipe).

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and continue to mix well. Add vanilla and LSA mix. Keep beating! Add remaining dry ingredients EXCEPT oats and chocolate chips. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the oats and chocolate chips.

Drop tablespoonsful of the mixture onto baking sheets and flatten with a fork. Bake for around 10 minutes.

You can add chopped dried fruit, almonds, extra chocolate .. anything really! to make these a tasty treat. I served these to Mr B plenty of times and he enjoyed them too (and no, they never caused him to lactate!!!)