A Sip of Summer: KidLitConfections Raspberry Lemonade Cookies

 

(The recipes, including a link to the index of printable PDF files, can be found at the bottom of this post.)

It's been uncomfortably hot here lately, with excessive heat warnings nearly every single day for the past week or so. So I guess we can safely say it's definitely summertime!

And for most of us, summertime has a definite flavor. The salty sea air at the beach, the smokiness of foods cooked on the backyard grill, and the sweet tang of lemonade. It's a time to let your hair down, relax, and make lasting memories. A time to flirt with endless possibilities, seek new adventures, and maybe even find a bit of romance.

The book I most recently devoured had all of the great summertime flavors and feelings, with a heavy dose of one of my favorite questions: "What if?"

Going Bicoastal
by Dahlia Adler

A queer Sliding Doors YA rom-com in which a girl must choose between summer in NYC with her dad (and the girl she's always wanted) or LA with her estranged mom (and the guy she never saw coming).

Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad (and finally screw up the courage to talk to the girl she's been crushing on), or spend it with her basically estranged mom in LA, knowing this is the best chance she has to fix their relationship, if she even wants to. (Does she even want to?)

How's a girl supposed to choose???

She can't, and so both summers play out in alternating timelines - one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the girl she's always wanted. And one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the guy she never saw coming.

Natalya loves her fruit-flavored lemonades, so my Raspberry Lemonade Cookies are a perfect pairing for this fun rom-com, where you get to choose your own happily-ever-after! 

I love that Natalya's happy ending includes more than just a fun summer romance with the boy (or girl) of her dreams. Her relationships with her parents and her friends are just as important. Because life is so much more complex than just a simple summer fling. Relationships (romantic or otherwise) shape who we are long after the initial excitement of a new flirtation fades. 

That summer romance might be the beginning of a lasting love. Or it might just be the spark that helps you to learn something about yourself that you never knew--something that shapes your character long after the spark fades.

The friends we've known since childhood and those we've only just met each play significant roles in our lives as they share bits of themselves and encourage us to do the same. And whether they'll be with us for only one summer or for many years to come, each one is important in this moment.

And our relationships with family: parents, grandparents, siblings, and "found family," who can sometimes be even closer than those blood relations, build the very core of our identities with every interaction or missed connection. 

Life is complex. It's sometimes messy and complicated, but the rewards can be so sweet. Likewise, these cookies are a bit more complicated than my usual quick-and-easy #KidLitConfections recipes. You'll need to take the time to zest and juice a few lemons, and you may need to order freeze-dried raspberry powder (not a usual pantry staple for most folks), but the blast of flavor is worth it. So bake up a batch. Grab a copy of GOING BICOASTAL, and enjoy the flavors of summer!

The printable PDF for this recipe is linked at the bottom of this post. You'll need a username and password to access the file. As always, the username is: kidlit and the new password (as of 7/22/2024) is: BooksSaveLives!

Raspberry Lemonade Cookies

 

2 c. sugar

2 c. butter

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 lemons

6 Tbsp. dehydrated raspberry powder**

¼ c. tapioca starch

4 c. gluten-free all-purpose flour

Zest 3 lemons into a medium-sized glass bowl, then squeeze the juice of all three lemons into the bowl. Add tapioca starch and whisk together. Microwave 30 seconds. Remove and whisk again to smooth out mixture. Microwave another 30-45 seconds, whisking every 15 seconds, until you have a pudding-like consistency.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add baking powder, salt, lemon mixture, and raspberry powder. Mix until combined, then turn speed up to high and beat until light and fluffy (at least 3-5 minutes).

Stir in flour, one cup at a time, just to combine.

Scoop into 1-inch balls. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart, and press to flatten each cookie slightly.

Bake* at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 9 minutes. Let cool about 5 minutes on tray before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies. 

*Optional: Bake a few cookies & freeze the extra cookie dough. Roll dough balls and flatten slightly. Place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheet (no space necessary) and freeze for 2-4 hours or overnight. Once frozen, transfer cookie dough to a large freezer bag and return to your freezer. You can bake straight from frozen at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-14 minutes. Freshly-baked cookies anytime you want!

**I love the KOYAH Organic Whole-Berry Raspberry Powder, which you can find on Amazon (here) or direct from the KOYAH website (here), because the only ingredient is organic, freeze-dried raspberries. There are lots of brands available in a simple Google search, but I haven't tried any others, so I can't vouch for them. If you do try another one (that is only raspberries--no other ingredients) and love it, please leave a comment to let me know!

Note: This recipe is egg-free for those with allergies, but it does have dairy in the butter. If you need a vegan cookie, you may try your favorite butter substitute, but you may need to tweak the flour amounts to get the right consistency with your dough, depending on which oleo you choose.

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