1 1/2 cups + 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar or vanilla sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup liquid sweetener (agave or maple syrup is best)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
3 tablespoons nondairy milk
1 medium lemon, zested
1/4 teaspoon turmeric, for color
1/4 to 1/3 cup blueberry preserves
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and line baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium to large bowl, combine all the flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk to get everything incorporated nicely.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil and sugar until thoroughly mixed. Stir in liquid sweetener, vanilla and lemon extracts, nondairy milk, lemon zest, and turmeric. Mix these ingredients together, then slowly shift/stir in the dry ingredients. Use your hands to get a dough to form. Avoid overworking the dough.
3. Next take small portions of the dough and roll into walnut sized balls. You can make them bigger, if you so choose, but this size usually yields about 20 cookies. Gently press cookie between your palms and fingers to form little disks.
4. Push a small dimple in the center and add 1/2 teaspoon or so of blueberry preserves. Place on prepared cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges turn a faint golden brown.
5. For a softer cookie with a chewy edge, bake for about 10 minutes. Allow a few minutes for cookies to cool before removing from sheet pan, then transfer to wire cooling rack and allow to completely cool.
Don't peek while the cookies are baking. You run the risk of letting the heat out the oven which makes for a sad cookie.
If possible, invest in a nice micro-plane grater. They are super awesome and can be used for all kinds of stuff. They zest lemons like nothing else and are usually under $18. If you can get a hold of real vanilla bean pods, try making your own vanilla sugar. Just split a vanilla bean down the middle and toss everything in a glass jar with some sugar. It will eventually infuse the amazing aroma of vanilla throughout the sugar. The vanilla pod can stay in the jar for a long time and be recycled to infuse a few batches.
Source of recipe: An experiment gone awesome! The idea came to me in a dream. Totally serious.