Lemon, Lime and Basil Cookies

Time for something different from all the fancy cupcakes and Jubilee baking. Back to basics with fresh, simple ingredients. I saw these on Chasing Delicious and bookmarked them immediately. You have to click through to see the awesome pictures and read the beautiful post. I'm so pleased I finally got round to making these as they are delicious!! I love citrus and the addition of basil is inspired. You can really taste the freshness of the citrus and the smell and taste of the basil is lovely. Everyone really enjoyed this at work and I had a few requests for the recipe. 

I made very minor modifications to the recipe as it's such a good one. I decided to add in some lemon and lime juice for extra citrus zing! The batter was not too liquid but required a few extra minutes of cooking time. I also used plain flour as I didn't have bread flour as specified in the original recipe and it worked fine. 

I'm entering this to multiple challenges as I am a bakingaddict and a challenge-addict. Plus I love killing many birds with one stone (no animals were harmed in the making of these!)

First up I am going to enter this to Simple and in Season as basil is currently in season as are lemons. Simple and in Season is run by Ren from Fabulicious Food and hosted this month by Urvashi from The Botanical Baker. 

Next I am entering this to Herbs on a Saturday hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage.

As this recipe uses fresh ingredients I'm also entering it to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior's Cookin' w/ Luv where the idea is to make foods from scratch. 

I am also entering it to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes as I've had this recipe bookmarked for ages! 

Finally I am entering it to One Ingredient Challenge where the theme is Lemons. This is a monthly family friendly cooking challenge hosted by Laura from How to Cook Good Food and Nazima from Working London Mummy.

 my lovely fresh ingredients - basil, lime and lemon

 adding chopped basil to the batter 

 lovely cookie dough

 

 How many would you like? :) 

Recipe adapted from Chasing Delicious - published with kind permission from the author

Makes approximately 24 cookies of the size shown

(My modifications are highlighted in blue)

113g butter, at room temperature
170g caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest from 1 lemon
Zest from 1 lime
2 tablespoons basil leaves, finely chopped
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional:
2 tablespoons lemon juice 

1 tablespoon lime juice 
Note - if adding juice, the cookies need to be cooked for a few minutes longer

• Preheat an oven to 190°C. 
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cream the sugar and butter together until it is light and fluffy.
• Add the egg, vanilla, zests and basil and mix in well.
• Add in the lemon and lime juice if using.
• Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. 
• Mix well.
• Spoon the dough onto the lined baking sheets. I used an ice-cream scoop. 
• Bake in a preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes - you may need 15 minutes with the addition of the juice. 
• Allow to cool for a couple minutes before removing from the baking sheet.