Soft Ginger Lemon Cookies

Cold weather and snow have hit us in Montana, so I am gearing up for baking season.  If you are in the same boat, you are going to love this recipe for sandwich cookies which brings together spiced ginger and tangy lemon.

For how much I love to bake (cookies in particular) I can’t believe how few cookie recipes I have posted on this blog.  I have always been the coo coo lady who bakes dozens upon dozens of cookies and shares them with everyone I know.  I have stopped in recent years, but when I used to do my crazy Kathy Christmas cookie overhaul, these were always a crowd favorite.  They have a classic holiday flavor (via a spicy ginger cookie) mixed with one of my personal favorites (creamy lemon).

When you are making these little gems, you might be tempted to make the ginger cookies a little bit bigger. Do not listen to that little devil on your shoulder.  I’ll play the angel here and tell you why you want tiny ginger cookies.  First these are sandwich cookies, meaning whatever size your ginger cookie is to start with will be double (plus cream!) by the time they are finished.  Second, these are a very sweet cookie. I’ve used cream cheese in the lemon filling to help cut the sweetness, but they are still the kind of treat where you’ll probably only want one.  And if you do want two, at only 19 mg sodium per serving you can treat yourself without blowing the sodium through the roof.

Soft Ginger Lemon Cookies

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SODIUM COUNT: 19.4 per sandwich cookie; 583.1 mg in the entire recipe

• Yield: 30 cookies 1x

Ingredients

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Ginger Cookies

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp sodium-free baking powder
• ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ¾ cup unsalted butter ((softened))
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp water
• ¼ cup molasses ((I prefer full flavor Brer Rabbit molasses))
• Turbinado or white sugar* ((for rolling))

Lemon Cream Filling

• 3 Tbsp butter ((softened))
• 4 oz cream cheese ((softened))
• 1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest ((from 1 medium lemon))
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice ((from ½ medium lemon))
• 1 Tbsp lemon extract
• 2 ½ cups powdered sugar ((sifted))

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Instructions

Ginger Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, ginger, sodium-free baking powder, cinnamon and cloves. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar by beating for 1-2 minutes on medium speed. Add the egg and beat for about one more minute. Stir in the water and molasses.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, about ½ cup at a time. Stir well after each addition.
5. Roll the cookies into small balls (about 1 teaspoon each). Roll the cookie dough balls in sugar, flatten slightly and place on baking sheet. The cookies will spread slightly, so place them about 1.5” apart.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the pan to a cooling rack.

Lemon Cream Filling

1. Whisk together the softened cream cheese and butter. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract and stir well. Stir in the sifted powdered sugar about ½ cup at a time. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Assembly

1. When the cookies have cooled completely, spread a bit of the lemon cream on the bottom of one of the cookies. Top this with another cookie, making a sandwich.

Notes

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 30 servings
Sodium: 19.4 mg, Calories: 172.9, Total Fat: 7.2 g, Saturated Fat: 4.5 g, Cholesterol: 24.8 mg, Carbohydrates: 25.3 g, Fiber: 0.3 g, Sugar: 17.4 g, Protein: 1.5 g.

*Turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw) gives the cookies a little tiny bit of crunch. The flavor is very similar to white sugar; my preference is turbinado but use whatever you have on hand.

The cookies keep best when kept cool. If the room you are storing them in tends to be warm, you may want to keep them in the refrigerator.

Recipe adapted from Gingersnap Cookies with Lemon Filling and Big Soft Ginger Cookies.  If you are looking for some other low sodium cookies, try the Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (one of my favorites) or the Spicy Caramel Shortbread.