Joanne Fluke's Lake Eden Cookbook Part 40

approximately 60 Hershey's Kisses chocolate candy

Hannah's 1st Note: These are simple to make if you use an electric mixer.

Measure out one cup of white, granulated sugar and place it in the bottom of a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of your electric mixer.

Soften 1 cup of salted b.u.t.ter and add it to your mixing bowl.

Beat the sugar and the b.u.t.ter until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Add the salt and the Tablespoon of vanilla extract. Mix them in thoroughly.

Mix in cup dry, instant grits.

Add 2 cups of all-purpose flour one cup at a time, beating after each addition.

Chop the coconut a little finer with the steel blade in your food processor or with a sharp knife on a cutting board. (I've heard some people say that they like the taste of coconut, but don't like the way it sticks between their teeth. Chopping it finer solves that problem.) Prepare your cookie sheets by greasing them, spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper. All three methods will work. (I lined mine with parchment paper.) Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, 12 cookies to a standard-size sheet.

Press a Hershey's Kiss chocolate candy into the top of each cookie, the point up. If there are any left over, the baker probably needs a dose of chocolate about now.

Bake your Kiss My Grits Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they begin to turn slightly golden around the edges. (Mine took 13 minutes.) Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely. (If you used parchment paper, just pull the paper over to the rack and leave the cookies on the paper until they're cool.) Yield: Makes 4 to 5 dozen scrumptious cookies everyone will like.

Hannah's 2nd Note: You might want to hold off telling the kids that they're eating grits until they take their third or fourth cookie.

*LEIGH'S LIME b.a.l.l.s DO NOT preheat your oven - these cookies require NO BAKING!

cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, pound) salted b.u.t.ter, softened

1-pound box (approximately 3 and cups) powdered

(confectioner's) sugar

6-ounce tube frozen limeade concentrate (You'll find this in

the frozen juice section at your market I used Minute

Maid Limeade)

1 Tablespoon key lime juice46

2 drops green food coloring (optional)

1 box (14 ounces net weight) vanilla wafers (I used Nabisco

Nilla Wafers)

1 cup shredded coconut (I used Baker's Angel Flake Coconut)

Prepare a cake pan by lining it with wax paper. You're going to use it to hold and refrigerate your lime b.a.l.l.s once you've made them.

Hannah's 1st Note: You can use an electric mixer to make these little treats, or you can do it by hand.

Hannah's 2nd Note: Let the tube of frozen limeade concentrate thaw on the counter while you start mixing the first few ingredients.

If you don't want to wait for your cold b.u.t.ter to warm to room temperature, you can soften it in the microwave. Here's how you do it: Unwrap a stick of refrigerated b.u.t.ter. Put it on a paper plate. Heat it for 5 seconds on HIGH in your microwave. Roll it forward so the topside is now on the side. Heat it for another 5 seconds on HIGH. Roll it forward again and heat it for another 5 seconds on HIGH. Roll it forward for the 3rd time and heat for another 5 seconds. Take the plate out of the microwave and transfer the softened b.u.t.ter to your mixing bowl.

Hannah's 3rd Note: Check the powdered sugar to make sure it doesn't have lumps. If it does, you'll have to sift out the lumps by using a flour sifter or putting it through a fine wire-mesh strainer.

Sprinkle the powdered sugar on top of the softened b.u.t.ter in your bowl and mix it all up.

If the frozen limeade has thawed, add it to your mixing bowl. If it hasn't, spoon it out of the container, put it into a microwave-safe bowl, and heat it on HIGH for 20 seconds. Stir to see if it's melted. If it's not, heat it in 20-second increments, stirring after each increment, until it's melted. Add the melted limeade concentrate to your bowl and mix it in thoroughly.

Add the Tablespoon of lime juice and mix it in.

Add the green food coloring (if you decided to use it) and mix that in thoroughly.

Crush the vanilla wafers. You can do this easily with a food processor and the steel blade, or in a blender. You can also do it by putting the wafers in a two-gallon-size freezer bag, placing it on the counter, and crus.h.i.+ng the wafers with a rolling pin. If you use the rolling pin method, crush half of the box of wafers at a time.

Add the crushed wafers to your bowl and mix them in.

Place the coconut in a medium-size bowl. You'll be coating your lime b.a.l.l.s with it. (I like to put my coconut in the food processor and use the steel blade to chop it even finer. I've found that most people who say they don't like coconut are really not objecting to the way it tastes, but the tendency it has to stick between their teeth.) Use your impeccably clean hands to form little b.a.l.l.s from the mixture. (Lisa and I use a 2-teaspoon scooper at The Cookie Jar.) The b.a.l.l.s should be about 1 inch in diameter, approximately the size of bonbons.

When you finish forming each ball, roll it in the bowl of coconut to coat it, and then place it in the cake pan.

When you've finished forming and coating all your lime b.a.l.l.s and placing them in the cake pan, cover them with another sheet of wax paper and refrigerate them for 2 to 3 hours before serving. If you're not serving them for several days, place a sheet of foil over the cake pan and secure it tightly. Keep the cake pan in the refrigerator until you're ready to serve.

If you're giving these as gifts, you can place them in pretty cookie tins. You can also put them in little paper mini m.u.f.fin cups and place them in a candy box. Remember to tell your lucky recipients to keep them refrigerated.

*LEMON SOFTIES.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

1 and cups white (granulated) sugar

1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces, pound) salted b.u.t.ter, softened

3 large eggs

teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 and cups lemon pie filling (I used Comstock my can

was 15.5 ounces net weight, and it was exactly 1 and

cups)

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

the zest of one lemon (that's only the yellow part of the

lemon rind, finely grated)