Lemon-Currant Cookies
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Everyday Food, March/April 2003
- Prep Time 20 minutes
- Total Time 40 minutes
- Yield Makes 5 dozen
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for baking sheets
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dried currants
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Directions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter two baking sheets, or line them with parchment paper. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in sour cream and egg.
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In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until they are well combined. Stir in currants and lemon zest.
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Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough about 1 1/2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake until cookies are puffed and golden around the edges, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on baking sheets before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
Currants are NOT raisins. They are dried currants. The reason you can't find them in the US is that production is banned in most states. Do NOT replace currants with raisins. Dried blueberries are a much better option and closer to the flavour of currants.
These sound delicious, but I have to nitpick one thing. Currants are not just small raisins. The black currant is a distinct fruit, and one of my favorites. The red currant is another distinct fruit. Zante currants are indeed dried grapes, which makes them raisins and therefore confusingly named. It's hard to find dried black currants in the US, at least in my area (Mid Atlantic), and worse when you are looking for actual currants and all you can find are zante currants.
Made these for a holiday cookie exchange and they were wonderful! They're simple but unique, have a lot of flavor, and are quick and easy to make. However, I used a small cookie scoop which made 1 1/2 to 2" cookies and the yield was only about 2 1/2 dozen. But no problem, since they're so easy, I just whipped up another batch. Definitely delicious for any occasion!
I just made these today for Easter treat. Came out great and delicious. I covered them with a lemon glaze.....really good!
To Valentinajacome - If you mix in the dry ingredients by hand, the cookies will be puffy like the ones in the picture.
Hi, the taste of those cookies is lovely. However, the ending result is a cookie that spreads out. it does not look as firm as the ones in the picture. could there be something not quite right with the published recipe? I followed it to the 't'.
A drop or two of lemon extract would beef it up also, and yes to "cal gal", reminds me of rock cakes....its a scottish thing !
Currants rock! My folks came from Scotland, and currants are used as much, if not more than, raisins. What I love about them is they caramelize and have a deliteful bite to them. They also have a more intense burst of flavour, but they do taste like raisins. I'm definitely going to try this recipe.
I'm not really crazy about currants, but I do love blueberries ... and blueberries and lemon go so well together -- so, I'm going to try this recipe with dried blueberries instead of the currants. I just know that they will be delicious!!!
When ever possible I would appreciate your adding storage instructions and calorie/nutritional values to the recipes. This recipe sounds like a winner, can't wait to try it out. Thanks for sharing.
I looked this up beause my first thought was the same (currants aren't raisins), turns out Zante Currants-the most common that we use in baking-are actaullly very small grapes dried and made into very small raisins. Who knew?!
currants are not 'very small raisins'....they're dried currants
This is a great cookie!! The subtle lemon flavor with the currants is just gourmet!! What a great tea cookie!!! These bake up very soft and chewy and kept well in the fridge for a long time as my spouse and I ate every single one!!!!!