A recipe for a crumbly grapefruit cookie sandwiched with grapefruit frosting.
Source: Confections of a Foodie Bride. Shawnda made them for a virtual baby shower, cute idea!
Yield: 15-30 cookies, depending on size
Late night baking is the curse of the food blogger. I’ve been so busy blogging and keeping up with errands and my kids’ spring break and health concerns, it has been really hard to find time to bake. I was determined to make these beautiful grapefruit cookies this week, so I started the batch about 11 pm. I was fueled by a recent re-read through the recipe, which made me drool over the thought of grapefruit juice. I pulled the grapefruits out of the fridge and smelled them. Mmmm. I can see why people want to do that grapefruit diet.
It was my first (and possibly last) time zesting grapefruit. It is not easy, and not fun. I bribed my husband to do the job, and stroked his ego by referring to it as a “manly job.” Maybe it was the kind of fruit I bought. They were the big, Red Star variety. I assume the “red” in the name refers to the inside of the fruit, because the rind was quite yellow. The grapefruits were all quite juicy and soft, and they did not stand up to zesting well at all. We resorted to using a cheese grater. Oy.
On the bright side, was was super easy to get juice out of the fruit once we were done squeezing the life out of it zesting it. I mixed up the cookie dough, and was disappointed in the amount of grapefruit peel I had to contribute. Luckily, the juice made up for it. I put my dough in the fridge to chill, and put my husband to bed.
Shawda said she used a 2″ round cookie cutter, and she cut about 60 cookies. That was not the case with me. My home is {unfortunately} devoid of 2″ cutters, so I used my 3″ cutter. I should have just made them heart-shaped or something, because my heart-shaped cutters are about 2″. Anyway, I ended up with around 30 circles, which will turn into 15 cookies. I baked them about 9 minutes.
The frosting was my favorite part! The grapefruit juice gave the frosting a big punch of flavor. I used just one drop of food coloring to kick the color up a notch. I’ll admit that I didn’t measure my powdered sugar. Let’s face it, not having to measure is one of the many benefits of making homemade frosting. I can tell you that it was less than 3 cups, though. The frosting still turned out quite stiff, and made me wish I had used a bit more fruit juice.
Do you ever have that experience where you’re too close to something to see it clearly? I think that’s how I felt about this finished cookie. I tried to be objective when I was eating it at 1:00 in the morning, but I could tell that it wasn’t going well. I had another cookie at lunch time the following day, and was amazed at how much I liked it. The heavy grapefruit flavor in the frosting balances the lighter flavor of the cookie, and they work really well as a pair. I kind of wished I had a virtual baby shower to take these to!
- FOR COOKIE:
- 1 grapefruit
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1½ cups flour
- ¾ cup cake flour
- FOR FILLING:
- grapefruit zest and juice reserved from cookie
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- red food coloring
- Zest grapefruit. Reserve about 1 T. zest (very lightly packed) for filling. Mix remaining zest with butter and sugar. Whip until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add egg and mix.
- In separate bowl, combine flours, salt, and baking powder. Add about half of this to butter mixture, stirring gently. Add ¼ cup grapefruit juice, then remaining dry ingredients, mixing to combine.
- Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
- Roll chilled dough on a floured surface to ⅛" thickness. Cut with round cutter. (I used 3-inch size)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
- For filling, place 1 T (lighly packed) grapefruit zest, 1 T. grapefruit juice, butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. Beat on medium or high to combine. Add 1 drop food coloring and stir to incorporate color.
- Spread a generous amount of filling on the bottom of cookies, and sandwich with another cookie.
If you enjoy this recipe, you might also enjoy:
Lemon Crinkles from Jen’s Favorite Cookies
Grapefruit Cake with Grapefruit Buttercream from Pastry Affair
Grapefruit Lime Citrus Pie from FlourTrader
This recipe linked up at:
Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms, Melt in Your Mouth Monday; Jam Hands, Recipe Sharing Monday; Crafts Keep Me Sane, Motivate Me Monday; My Sweet and Savory, Meatless Mondays; Marvelous Messy, A Marvelous Mess;
These are very unique!
I’ve never eaten grapefruit cookies and I think it’s a wonderful idea
I love it!
Oh my, these are awesome. I love grapefruit, I can taste them now! Found you from jam hands!
Aimee @ ShugarySweets