Light and chewy olive oil based sugar cookies infused with lemon and basil flavors.
Ingredients
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups sugar, plus more for rolling (about ¼ cup)
⅓ cup basil infused olive oil
Zest of 2 lemons
1 tsp dried basil
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat mat.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine the sugar and olive oil; mix well.
In a small bowl, stir together the lemon zest and dried basil.
In another small bowl, add one tablespoon of the lemon zest and basil mixture and combine it with ¼ cup sugar. This will leave you with some lemony-basil scented sugar to roll the cookies in. Set aside.
Add the eggs, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and the remainder of the lemon-basil mixture to the sugar and olive oil. Stir together until smooth.
Fold in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.
Scoop a tablespoon of the dough, form it into a ball, and roll it into the lemon-basil sugar.
Place the cookies on the prepared pans and bake for 11 minutes.
Let cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
These are naturally dairy-free. The dried basil can be replaced by fresh basil. I just didn’t have any on hand since this was a spur-of-the-moment baking experience. If you don’t have basil infused olive oil, regular olive oil would work well too.
Recipe by Just J.Faye at https://www.justjfaye.com/2014/05/09/lemon-and-basil-infused-olive-oil-sugar-cookies/