Lemongrass Sugar Cookies

Lemongrass Plant

I didn't realize lemongrass could grow in the midwest. It's primarily used in Southeast Asian cuisines, and I've only ever seen it growing in the wild or even discussed in tropical climates. True, it's possible to get it pretty easily here, but I guess I assumed it was coming from warmer places.

When I went to buy flowers and herbs to plant on my patio, though, there it was: a lemongrass plant at the local nursery in Chicago. It looked different from Asian lemongrass in that the stalks were thinner and more like regular grass. And when I rubbed the leaves, there wasn't much of a lemon-y scent. But I figured I'd try it and bought 2 plants.

As the plants grew, the stalks grew a bit thicker; though they're still not nearly so thick as typical Asian lemongrass. I picked a stalk just to see if it was even viable and...sure enough, it had a very strong lemongrass scent. I used it in the syrup for last week's Flying Tuber cocktail, in fact. And I had lots more plants to use, so I thought about what to do with it.

Lemongrass and sugar in
food processor

In thumbing through Dorie Greenspan's excellent Baking From My Home to Yours I came across her sugar cookie recipe. It's a really simple recipe that's not as buttery as shortbread, and has some egg to hold it together. It seemed like an ideal canvas for my abundant lemongrass.

Completed Cookies

So I picked a few stalks of lemongrass, chopped it up (and got rid of the really leafy parts that had no flavor), and then spun it in the food processor for a few minutes with the sugar for the cookie recipe. Taking off the lid of the food processor was an intense experience, as the smell and essential oils from the lemongrass overpowered the senses and nearly made me gasp.

I mixed that with the butter and proceeded with the recipe as described in the book. (This same technique would work for any cookie recipe that's fairly mild in flavor.)

The cookies were good. They didn't overpower with lemongrass flavor, but definitely had a bit of kick to them. The flavor was more subtle than I expected, and kind of hung in the background. It could possibly benefit from some citrus zest or maybe even ginger or another aromatic to make it pop. As I think about it, I might try mixing some lemongrass into a ginger snap recipe. Hmmmm... stay tuned!