Lemon Drops in a Hail Storm

Last week, we had a real honest-to-goodness hail storm in Brooklyn so intense that the elephant ear plant in our front garden went from this:

to this --  in less than five minutes.

Of course, while all this was happening, I was busy baking from a recipe card labeled only "Lemon Drops."  It took me a while, but I finally decoded recipe which included some -- but certainly not all -- the instructions needed to make these.  I wasn't even sure if they were rolled cookies, bar cookies or drop cookies when I started, but I was drawn to the hand-written (in pencil!) recipe card and who doesn't like lemon.  Furthermore, I was excited to use my new-old lemon reamer (marked with the date July 10, 1888!) that I bought at an antique shop in Copley, Ohio.

These take a tiny bit of prep (zesting and reaming a couple of lemons -- always zest the lemon before reaming it), allowing time for the butter soften to room temperature and rolling the cookies into balls, but they are very quick and easy. And amazingly lemon-y.

I finally figured out how to make these.  My instructions follow the recipe below.

Cream the shortening (I always use butter) and sugar.  Stir in the egg, juice and peel.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and add to the butter-sugar mixture.  Refrigerate for about 15 minutes or so, until the dough can be easily handled.  Mix together the 3 tbs. of sugar with the cinnamon and reserve. Roll dough  into one-inch balls and the roll each until completely covered in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Place on parchment covered cookie sheet and bake about eight minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Production note: The cookies in the top two rows (in the first pictures) were done before I figured out that you are supposed to roll the cookies in a ball and roll in the cinnamon sugar.  They look a bit more "rustic," but if you don't have the time or inclination to go the extra mile, they work fine like this.