Lemon, lemon, lemon! {recipes}

I am trying to ward off winter by bringing out my citrus-y recipes! There is nothing like a yummy lemony dessert in the springtime. So today, I’d love to share with you some of the yummy lemon recipes I have been trying out recently. I hope you love them as much as I have!

These tasty treats won LDS Living’s cookie contest, and for great reason! They are easy to make and taste phenomenal! I would take a few plates over to my neighbors, otherwise, I’d probably eat them all myself 🙂

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

From: Lauren Brennan; laurenslatest.com

So I have two lemon cheesecake bars on my “to try” list, and this one looked simpler and faster to make, so therefore, this is the one I decided to make this time around! I’ll try the other one sometime soon and see which one really is better 🙂

Lemon Cheesecake Bars

1 box yellow cake mix

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs

8 oz cream cheese

1/3 c. sugar

1-2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Mix cake mix in a small bowl with oil and one egg until crumbly. Reserve 1/2-1 cup of cake mixture and put aside. Mash remaining mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes (this is better underdone!). While baking, mix together until smooth- cream cheese, sugar, remaining egg, and lemon juice (no matter how much lemon juice you put in, its not a huge flavor). As soon as the crust comes out of the oven, spread cream cheese mixture evenly on top and then crumble remaining cake mixture over this. Bake in 350 degree oven for 13 minutes. Cool and cut into bars (I like mine cold, so I keep it in the refrigerator)

From: Peachtree Cooking

This recipe recently caught my eye….I love Muddy Buddies, and this sounded like a fun twist. They are a great treat and you will be eating them by the handful! It’s also a good one for the kids to help with, letting them shake up the bag with the powdered sugar. Little man loved it 🙂

Lemon Chex Mix
From: Chex

9 cups Rice Chex® cereal
1 1/4 cups white vanilla baking chips
1/4 cup butter or margarine
4 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cups powdered sugar

Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.

In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chips, butter, lemon peel and juice uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.

Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; gently shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool. Store in airtight container.

Nothing like a good lemon bar. This one was a little different than some of the other recipes with the addition of some lime juice and lime zest. They were mighty tasty, and will be made again!

Lemon-Lime Delight Bars
From: Angel Shannon’s Stick of Butter cookbook

2 sticks of butter (or margarine), softened
1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 c. flour
4 eggs, beaten
2 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
4 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice and zest, to taste
Combine butter, powdered sugar, and flour…mix well. Press into a 9×13 pan and bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Blend eggs, sugar, flour, juices, and zest together; pour into slightly cooled crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until set.

Chill and sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, if desired.