Twirly Lemon Cookies and My First Chef’s Coat
If you have read about me, you know that in 1991 I decided to go to culinary school at UCLA. I had this bone-deep intense longing to learn how to do all the techniques I was reading about in food magazines. I wanted to learn to make sauces and to understand pastry and baking. I didn’t own a stand mixer or a food processor, or know how to use them. I remember trying to make a red wine butter sauce and having it break into a greasy mess. I tried to make meringue with the little hand mixer I got as a wedding present in 1965, which ended in dismal failure. And remember, back then there were no food blogs, no food channel, no facebook. If you wanted to learn how to do something you went to the library, found it in a food magazine or took a cooking class. I was tearing my hair out in frustration.
So the magical day came when I called up to register for my first class, and was told that I would have to take a little test on cooking knowledge before being allowed into the culinary program. Oh my god, there was actually a chance I might not pass and not be able to get in! My heart was galloping in my chest. They were giving the test in the near future, so she gave me the address, building, room number, date and time. She said you had to get 70% of the answers correct to pass.
So on that fateful day, I had to drive for 45 minutes to get to the UCLA campus, find street parking that was non-existent, walk blocks to the proper building, go up the elevator and walk through a maze of halls to find the room. I walked in and it was a maelstrom of about 50 people standing and talking, people sitting at tables taking the test, people standing in lines at the front of the room to get their tests graded, people at another table filling out forms and writing checks, and people trying on new chef’s coats. So for people like me who can’t concentrate if there is any noise, I had just walked into my version of hell. And I was supposed to take a test!
So I got the test, which was about 5 photocopied pages stapled in the upper left hand corner, and sat at one of the conference tables. I was so afraid I wouldn’t know anything and my hopes of going to culinary school would be dashed. If I was someone who hyper-ventilated, I would have been gasping. So I stuck my fingers in my ears and looked at the questions. Eureka! They were easy, such as:
- How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?
- How many ounces in a pound?
- At what temperature does water boil and freeze?
- Name 5 leavening agents
- True/False Chefs never need to wash their own dishes
- How many cups in a quart?
Well, I whipped through that test like a hot knife through butter and took it to the front of the classroom to be graded. There actually were a couple of people who got less than 70% and left so dejectedly. It was really sad. I, on the other hand, got 100% correct. The lady said I was only the second one all day who had done that. My head was pretty big, let me tell you. So I got to fill out the forms to put my name in the culinary school data base, and write a check for my Chef’s Coat, which we were required to wear to the cooking classes. There were big stacks of new folded chef’s coats wrapped in plastic, so the lady gave me one and told me to try it on to make sure it was the right size.
Oh my god! I was so excited. My first Chef’s Coat! I walked to the side of the room and facing the blackboard, I put that chef’s coat on. I had this shit-eating grin on my face that I could not stop. I buttoned up the white jacket and ran my hands up and down the stiff new fabric. I folded up the sleeves, which came past my fingertips. I couldn’t stop grinning, so I couldn’t turn around, because I would have looked like a total idiot. Finally I was able to straighten out my face and tell the lady I had the correct size. She said I could now call and register for one of the classes.
As I was going down the elevator, holding that chef’s coat, that real thing, the fantasy now transformed into reality. I was going to go to culinary school. For real. Yes!!!
(See me in my chef’s coat here.)
I chose the Twirly Lemon Butter Cookies for this post because piping was one of the new techniques I learned in my first culinary school cooking class. We practiced with mashed potatoes because we were making Coquilles St. Jacques, which was a scallop gratin with mashed potatoes piped decoratively around the edge.
If you like the heady taste of lemon, then this is the cookie for you. The cookie dough and the frosting have lemon juice and lemon zest, and the dough even has lemon extract. These would be perfect with your hot afternoon tea, or with your iced tea, for that matter. I bet you can’t eat just one.
2 1/4 cups AP flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon zest, grated or microplaned (1 lemon)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly grease or spray.
2. In a food processor, whiz the butter and sugars until well blended. Add the zest, lemon juice, egg yolks, vanilla, and lemon extract and whiz until thoroughly mixed.
3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and whiz until thoroughly mixed in. The dough should be soft enough to pipe. If not, add water 1 teaspoon at a time and incorporate.
4. Put the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch open star tip and pipe 1 1/4 to 1 1/2-inch-wide circular swirls onto the baking sheet, 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.
5. Place the baking sheet in the upper third of the oven and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottom edges of the cookies are just starting to brown.
6. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for a few minutes, then remove with a spatula. Allow to cool completely.
For the Frosting
2 1/3 cups powdered sugar, plus more if needed
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest, grated or microplaned
7 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick minus 1 tablespoon), slightly softened, cut into tablespoons
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, plus more if needed
1 drop yellow liquid food coloring (optional)
1. Whiz the powdered sugar and lemon zest in a food processor, about 20 seconds.
2. Add the butter and whiz until very little pebbles form. Add the lemon juice and food coloring and whiz until well blended and smooth.
3. Remove frosting to a bowl and mix thoroughly with a spoon to ensure the food coloring is evenly distributed.
4. Put the frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch open star tip. Pipe 3/4 to 1-inch twirly circular frosting hats on each cooled cookie. Use your finger to smooth the edge of the frosting where it ends. Let stand until the frosting sets completely, up to 3 hours.
Note: If you don’t frost your cookies immediately, but store them stacked up in a container, crumbs from the bottom of the cookies may adhere to the tops of the cookies below. Before frosting, brush the crumbs off with a pastry brush.
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Welcome to Cook & Be Merry
Hello! My name is Lynne Hemer, and I am a woman obsessed with food and cooking, in search of new, unusual, exotic, and sublime ingredients and recipes. I love reading cookbooks, taking cooking classes, going to restaurants, photographing food, and blogging about it all! I hope you enjoy my website as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Feel free to contact me at lynne@cookandbemerry.com
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Ahh one of those important moments in life where you rem all the details…hahah and so funny how you couldn’t stop grinning! You captured the moment beautifully.
Oh and chefs never need to wash their own dishes, right? 😛
Great story and a delicious post! Thanks for sharing.
These put most bakery cookies to shame! 😉
Truly beautiful, and I bet they taste even better.
The cookies look delish! Oh, and congrats on your new coat! 😀
You are making me want to go to chef’s school…it is a dream of mine to study at a pastry school in France! These cookies couldn’t look better…I am wanting to get my piping bag out now!
Wonderful story… for a second I wondered if I could pass the test. I can totally picture you worried and then super happy. These cookies btw look great, now I need to buy a piping bag 🙂
Passing ur story and recipe along to College Girl – she not-so-secretly wants to go to pastry school, and lemon is her all-time fav dessert package! This looks absolutely delicious! The triple lemon threat makes all the difference. Hope I can nudge her to make a batch of these!
[…] Twirly Lemon Cookies […]
What a lovely trip down memory lane. However, it’s quite clear I would fail this test. Those were not easy questions for me! Those cookies, however, look lovely and wonderful. I ADORE a lemony sweet treat!
I KNEW I should have gone to cooking school instead of med school. Passing the test would have been way easier than studying for the MCATs. Hmmm.
Oh these are so lovely! I love anything that is infused with lemons and the piped cookies are oh so pretty! I loved your story by the way!
WHAT!! You’re my rival!!! You…Bruin!
lol. I didn’t know UCLA had a culinary program. That’s super cool. And I’ve dreamed about going to culinary school, but had to settle on journalism or writing as my true calling.
Your piping skills, may I add, is perfect.
Oh, lemon and cookie dough….perfection! Great story!
Loved your story about the test and coat. 🙂 And I do love lemons, so I’m going to have to give these cookies a try!
Hi Lynne!!!
I absolutely LOVED your story – I felt the same way when I got my first chef’s coat for school (still have it BTW – it’s stained and frayed but I still love it!). Lemon is a big seller in our house so I will definitely have to make these cookies – and I can already tell no one in my family will be able to “eat just one”!!!
Beautiful cookies and what a wonderful story! 🙂
What a fantastic blog! Great storytelling! And the cookies look scrumptious too 🙂
I am a lemon head and will be making these – although you were witness to my less than adquate piping skills. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to see you in your chef’s coat.
Oh Lynne, I don’t do well in noisy testing rooms either. I get kind of loopy;)
Your cookies look perfect by the way. They remind me of these perfect little butter cookies we used to make at a bakery I worked for in Atlanta-yum. Lemon is my favorite too… Where’s the tea (smile)?
What a wonderful story! I wouldn’t have gotten 100% on the test. I fantasize about buying a chef’s coat at Surfas. I look at it every time I go there—that lime green one. But I feel like I would be a poser since I’m not qualified to wear it.
I was unaware that you are a trained chef, but it now completely makes sense. Your recipes and cooking are perfect. And your photos, of course, are gorgeous. What were your plans once graduated, Ms. Chef?
Loved the story and those twirly cookies are calling my name! So irresistible!
so thank you for the recipe… I don’t have the whole swirly thing down so mine didn’t turn out that pretty so instead I made them into lemon cookie sandwiches and then rolled the entire lemony cookie sandwich in powdered sugar… delicious!!!
thanks again
I know you posted this a long time ago, but I loved your story. These cookies are going into my must bake list. It will be interesting to see how the piping of the cookie dough goes.
My cookies spread out and did not retain the piped shape. Any ideas as to what I may have done wrong?
Hi Elaine ~ I hope we can figure out why your cookies spread out. So let me ask you a couple of questions. Did you use real butter, not a butter substitute like I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter or a margarine? Did you use egg yolks only , not whole eggs? Did you measure the liquid tablespoons and teaspoons correctly for the lemon juice, vanilla and lemon extract? Was it really hot in your kitchen so the dough was really soft? I feel really bad that they didn’t turn out. Did they taste good enough so you could still eat them? I hope you will get back to me on this. Happy Holidays! Lynne xo
via email:
I followed the directions. It may have been too warm in the kitchen. After the first tray spread out I rolled the dough into balls, rolled them in green sugar, & put half a candied cherry on top. They look pretty & taste delicious. Thanks for your reply. Merry Christmas!
I am from Australia. What is AP flour?
Dear Thelma ~ Happy Holidays! AP stands for all purpose flour. I hope your Twisted Cookie adventure is successful and the eating is merry. Lynne XO