My team at work knows the way to my heart is through food. That's why, for my birthday this year, I received both brownies AND lemon cookies. My coworker Jess is an amazing baker, and brought these lemon cookies that have a bright, tart flavor and chewiness. I knew I had to make them again, as I was craving them pretty much as soon as the batch was gone. It's a testament to these cookies that I've made them 5 times in the past 3 months.

The original recipe calls for the cookies to be tossed in powdered sugar. I wanted an even bigger hit of lemon, so in addition to adding more lemon juice to the batter, I created a lemon glaze for my cookies instead. Either way works!

The agave/honey is what gives these cookies their chewy quality, so don't skip it! A bonus: these cookies are eggless, for all those lacto-vegetarians out there.

Chewy Eggless Lemon Cookies

makes 30 cookies

Adapted from Sophistimom

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
1/4 cup agave or honey
1/3 cup sugar
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
Cream butter, lemon zest, sugar, and agave together until fluffy, about 2 minutes
Stop beating and add in the baking soda
Add in 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and start beating again for about a minute--the baking soda and lemon juice reaction acts as a leavener, in place of eggs
Slowly add in flour until all incorporated
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. I get about 30 cookies out of the dough
Bake for 9 minutes
Let cookies cool
In a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup lemon juice (should be the amount you have from the rest of your lemons) and 1 cup of powdered sugar, into a pourable glaze
Dip cooled cookies in lemon glaze, and allow to harden for about 20 minutes