Lemon Cookie Bites

I'm excited to share a recipe with one of my #1 favorite flavors in it... LEMON!!

Do you love lemon?

I have always loved lemonade, but for the last five years or so I want lemon everything - donuts, cakes, cupcakes, treats, my ice water, etc.  It's just such a yummy flavor.

Breaking News... I picked the HELLO FRESH WINNERS!  There were so many entries that I decided to pick FOUR winners instead of THREE.  All winners have been emailed.  Congrats Julie, Kristen, Stephanie and Becca!  Hope you enjoy Hello Fresh as much as we do.

Back to lemon cookie bites.

In full disclosure, I tried a couple lemon cookie recipes that were a DISASTER before coming up with this one.  The first one smelled like playdoh and the second one baked into runny pancakes in the oven.  So this simple take on altering a sugar cookie recipe is the winner.

I hope you love these Zesty Lemon Cookie Bites as much as we did.  They're easy to make and so good!  They'd be a fun addition to any holiday gathering because they are sweet, but not rich or heavy.  Bonus: This is a kid friendly recipe if you've got little ones anxious to help you in the kitchen.  I also made them about half the size of my regular cookies so they were tiny and cute.

COOKIES:
I used this recipe for Simple Sugar Cookies that I shared back in 2013.

You could really use any sugar cookie recipe that you love - just swap out the vanilla extract for lemon extract and you'll get a mild lemon cookie.  If you really love lemon flavor, add in about half a lemon's worth of zest, too.  It's that easy!  I like my lemon cookies to have a little crunch so I baked them for 12 minutes.  I also used my 1 inch cookie scoop.

FROSTING:
Then I used my go to Perfect Butter Cream recipe.  I shared it in 2014 and it's amazing.  I get compliments on it everywhere I go.  It's delicious on cupcakes, cakes, cookies, graham crackers and cinnamon rolls.  I use it for everything.

One cup of the perfect butter cream frosting.  Add in the juice of half a lemon and the zest of half a lemon.  Stir until frosting is a runny consistency.  Let cookies cool and use a knife to ice them.  You can always add a little lemon zest to the top of the cookies while the icing is still wet for a little extra lemon pop.  Let the cookies dry in the open for 1-2 hours and then package up.

Since we're on the topic of cookies today, I thought I'd share a couple other cookie recipes that I LOVE.  I make these all the time and my family/friends really enjoy them.  I have plans to make all of these this holiday season.

THE BEST PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(Recipe and details here)

MY MOST FAMOUS RECIPE - CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(Recipe & details here)

AMAZING BROWNIE COOKIES
(Recipe and details here)

I'm participating in a fun Cookie Swap Blog Hop with several of my blog friends.

COME LINK UP ALL OF YOUR FAVORITE COOKIE RECIPES!!

It's going to be awesome to have so many new cookie recipes to try for the holidays.

Head over to check out all of their delicious cookie recipes and find a new blogger or two to follow.

Shelly | Penny | Stephanie

Heather | Keri | Whitney | Leslie