When winter time is upon us, we always think about baked goods… filled with warm spices, delicious apples, and dried fruits. It rarely dawns on us, I think as a collective, at CITRUS is actually in its peak season in the winter months! That’s why I created this lemon and dark chocolate chunk cookies recipe.

Warm up and get zesty with these Lemon and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

The important thing about these cookies is the balance of lemon to dark chocolate. If you used semi-sweet chocolate chunks or milk chocolate, the sweetness would be overwhelming! You also don’t want too much chocolate… at least, thats how I feel.

Also, it is important to note how to properly zest a lemon! I’ve done it “wrong” before and ended up with SUPER bitter lemon flavor. To zest your lemon, make sure not to go too deep. You should just be zesting the yellow, then moving on to the next section. Don’t zest it super hard, cutting into the white under flesh. Its very bitter… it is very sad.

Let’s get right to the recipe for these zesty lemon and chocolate chunk cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 c flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Stick of Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp White Sugar (Approx. 3/4 Cup)
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• 1/2 Cup

Directions for Lemon and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

First, sift together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.

Then, beat together your butter with the sugars. Once its well incorporated, add the egg and vanilla, and beat again til its really fluffy. This is super important for the texture of the cookies.

Next, hand mix in the sifted dry ingredients, 1/2 (or less) at a time, till fully incorporated. Then, ddd your chocolate chunks and lemon zest, and blend till fully incorporated.

Finally, line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place 1 TSBP balls of dough on the pan. They double in width, spreading while they bake, so give them space. Bake at 175C for 18min, or til lightly browned on the edges. When you remove them from the oven, let them cool at least 2 minutes. Then, eat up! Or store them for your next event.

This batch should make about 12 cookies.

These cookies are versatile and are also delicious sans the lemon zest, with ginger and clove added instead!

If you loved this recipe and are interested to see more from my blog or offerings:

• Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta with Sausage and Mushrooms
  
• Garlicky Vermicelli Glass Noodles with Greens
  
• Unique Open Faced Toasts, 4 Ways