Summer Jobs and Lemon Sour Cream Cookies with Blueberry Frosting
Spoiler alert: I have entered the workforce, I may have forgotten some of this recipe, and I’m now pretty dang good at making pie.
If you’re reading this, you probably know the satisfaction of turning plain-old flour into something that makes people really really happy. Baking is good, honest, simple, and rewarding work. And I like simple, rewarding work. So I decided to get two summer jobs: one working in the deli of an Italian market, and one baking pies (beginning at 6 am).
Needless to say, my pie-baking skills have vastly improved. Here is a blueberry pie I made yesterday. It inexplicably smelled like chocolate chip cookies when it was baking. It was glorious.
What could be better that getting paid to make pies with awesome people who are obsessed with browned butter just as much as I am? However, when I applied for two jobs, I didn’t really know what I was signing up for. In my naïvety I thought there was nothing more exhausting than an 8-hour school day packed full of tests and meetings. Nope. I was wrong.
Dear innocent, privileged high-school me,
Welcome to the real world. And please, never complain about school again.
Sincerely,
Kas
I now have a much greater appreciation for every barista and baker that gets up at 4:00 am every morning, for all the parents that take care of their children and work multiple jobs, and for food service workers in general. While we relax on our lunch breaks or wind down with dinner, they are working to serve us our food.
My exhaustion (combined with my old-lady tendencies) made me totally forget how I made these cookies. You know how your grandma has that recipe that only she knows because she refuses to write it down? I similarly (and stupidly) don’t write anything down. And, even though I’m not supposed to, I experiment with my baking. Since I made these cookies over a week ago, all my little experiments have been forgotten. Rather than fudge a recipe for you all, I figured I’d tell you the truth: I have no idea how I made these cookies.
I do remember what I liked about them! They were super soft and had the perfect balance of citrus and sweet. You might be thinking, “Sour cream? In cookies?” Yep. Sour cream makes wonderfully cakey, soft cookies.
When it comes to lemon desserts, my go-to is this lemon loaf cake recipe that’s always a hit. I love it because it has a ton of zest in it, just like these cookies. I always rub the zest into the sugar to bring out all the oils from the peel. The cake also has yogurt in the batter (which functions kind of like the sour cream), and is finished off with a nice lemony glaze poured on top. It has ruined almost all other lemon desserts for me. The texture is just soft and moist and perfect. Amazingly, so are these cookies.
And what’s a cakey cookie without a good icing? Since it’s summer I had to use fruit. That icing is made with real blueberries and maybe just a touch of food coloring to get the right color. The taste of the fresh blueberry was a great, sweet compliment to the lemon. Fruit frostings are definitely going to be a go-to for me now!
Even though I don’t have a complete recipe, I hope this post is at least inspiring. You can always experiment yourself, or follow the classic 1967 recipe straight out of the book and see how it goes. In case you are curious, here’s what I remember, and what I changed from the original recipe:
Omit: nutmeg, vanilla
Add: 1 tbsp lemon juice, zest of 2 lemons, 1 egg + 2 egg yolks (instead of 2 whole eggs)
The Frosting: confectioners sugar, small container blueberries (pureed), 3 tbsp softened butter, 1 tsp vanilla (all whipped together)
The Baking: scoop balls of dough onto cookie sheets and refrigerate for 1 hr before baking. Bake for about 9 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
I hope my experience is relatable, even for people who entered the workforce long ago and are shaking their head at me right now. I think everyone has a moment when they realize how much they had it made as a kid.
But, you know, I like working. I like it a lot.
The perfect pie, a really clean work station, or a nod of approval from a boss feels good, like an A circled on top of a paper; it just feels good in a different way. And you know what will feel really good on September first when I start my senior year? The desk chair under my butt that has me off my feet.
