Just Melt With Me

I am addicted. I had never had a meltaway cookie before I made these beauties but they truly are a great recipe to have in your back pocket around the holidays. The cookies have a crunch when you bite in to them, but due to the use of corn starch just seem to dissolve right on your tongue. Another nice feature of these cookies is the subtle taste of citrus lingering in the background, in this case, grapefruit. (The foreground is dominated by the powdered sugar, as it should be) Feel free to use whatever citrus juice and zest you have on hand and seeing as it is after all the holidays, I feel confident that everyone will have a gift basket or two to work through. 

Another great element of these cookies is their "slice-and-bake" feature. The recipe requires you to chill the dough in log form for an hour or so, which works out great if you want to slice about 5 or 40 for the night and then put the remainder back in the fridge. Last night I removed one of the two logs and sliced them up and by nights end they had disappeared. I think because of their bite size I would take two or three in my hand just for a trip upstairs!

I hope you put these cookies to use this holiday and enjoy the season!

Grapefruit Meltaway Cookies--

1 and 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1/3 cup confectioners sugar, plus extra for coating

Zest of one grapefruit

2 to 3 tablespoons of Grapefruit juice (juice half of a fruit and then reduce over med-high heat) 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 and 3/4 cup plus 2 TBS flour

2 TBS cornstarch 

1/4 tsp salt

Procedure - 

Cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add in the zest, juice, and vanilla and combine. Whisk flour, salt, and cornstarch and then slowly add into the butter mixture. Role dough into 1 to 1.5 inch diameter logs and rap in either saran wrap or parchment paper. Chill logs at least one hour. Once dough is firm, slice logs into 1/4 inch rounds and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until a light brown color. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes. While the cookies are still worm, fill a zip top bag with confectioners sugar and toss the cookies in the sugar to coat.

These can be stored for a few weeks if kept in a sealed container.