Lemon Sugar Cookies

Ingredients for Cookies:

1 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons vanilla

5 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix until smooth.
• Combine flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. Add to butter mixture; mix well. Divide dough into three balls. Wrap and cool in refrigerator for four hours.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out shapes.
• Bake cookies. Cool and garnish with lemon drizzle.

Lemon Drizzle:

Combine-

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

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Weight Watcher Points Breakdown:

• Butter - 16 points
• Sugar - 15 points
• Eggs - 4 points
• Sweetened milk - 22 points
• Lemon juice - 0
• Vanilla - 0
• Flour- 45
• Baking Powder - 0
• Salt - 0
• Drizzle - 0

*Recipes makes 7 - 8 dozen making each cookie approximately 1 point each. *

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Healthier Version:

Let's face it. There isn't really anyway to make a cookie or sugary treat "healthy". Everyone knows that too much sugar is bad for you. However, I do have some suggestions for making it more "safe". I tend to think whole/ real foods and fats along with organics are better for you. Sometimes time and money make it hard but I think given the option, you should use whole/real foods and fats and organic products as much as possible. With that being said, here is how I would change the recipe to make it more healthy in those ways.

1 cup of raw cultured butter (homemade from cream would be best)

1 cup sucanate, raw honey or raw maple syrup

2 large free range eggs

1 can organic sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup lemon juice squeezed from unsprayed organic lemon

2 teaspoons homemade vanilla (click here for recipe)

5 cups unbleached flour

4 teaspoons of aluminum free baking powder

1 teaspoon of sea salt

1 1/2 cup of sucanate powdered (by blender or food processor) in place of powdered sugar

2 tablespoons filtered water

1 table spoon fresh squeezed lemon juice from organic unsprayed lemon

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The Finished Product:

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How It Rated:

Prep Time: Preparing the cookies was really easy. However, I really don't like having to cool the cookies and get out of my "groove" for a few hours. I give this category a 3.

Cooking: 4

Overall Ease: 3

Cost: This was a pretty cost effective Holiday cookie to make. There were a lot of ingredients but found on sale or with coupons, they are fairly cheap. This recipe would be even cheaper if some of the ingredients were homemade. I rate this a 4 for cost effectiveness. I took off 1 point for all the ingredients that are needed to be purchased.

Kid's verdict:  5
LOVED THEM!

Adult's verdict: 5
LOVED THEM! I really don't like putting cookies in the 'fridge and I always roll out the cookies wrong. It's just plain frustrating to me. HOWEVER, the taste of the cookies totally rid all of my negatives!

Overall Rating:  4
If there wasn't the number of steps and time to make, this would have been a 5 +!

(Rating system is based on the number 1 - 5. One being the worst and five being the best.)

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* This was a recipe found on the Eagle Brand website.*

Happy Cookie Tasting!