Lemon Cranberry Snowdrops

Jeff the Chef
"Lemon Cranberry Snowballs," from Make It Like a Man!

Have you every had a Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar? These Lemon Cranberry Snowdrops taste a lot like that: citrusy, but not sharp … a luscious little cookie that dreams of being a bonbon.

Lemon Cranberry Snowdrops
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Lemon Cranberry Snowdrops

Recipe by Make It Like a Man!Course: Dessert
Makes

48

cookies

First, you’ll candy some lemon. Then you’ll create the cookie filling, and finally you’ll dip the filling in a candy coating.

Ingredients

  • 4 small lemons

  • 9¼ oz. (1 cup + 6 Tbs) sugar, divided

  • 6 oz. (6 generous Tbs) dried cranberries or cherries, chopped, divided

  • 1 package (14.3 oz., or 36 cookies) Golden Oreos

  • 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

  • ¼ tsp lemon extract

  • 3 Tbs vegetable shortening

  • 18 oz. white, vanilla candy melts

Directions

  • Use a vegetable peeler to peel the rind off of one of the lemons, and place the peels into a small saucepot. Blanch them: cover with 10 oz. (1¼ cups) water, bring to a boil over a medium-high flame (which takes 4 minutes), and allow to boil for 5 minutes. Strain the peels, discarding the liquid.
  • Add 10 oz. (1¼ cups) water and 8.75 oz. (1¼ cups) sugar to the same saucepan. Place over medium-high heat, and stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved, 3 minutes. Bring to a full boil, 2 minutes. Add the peels, and lower the heat to its lowest setting. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the peels are translucent around the edges, about 10 minutes.
  • Strain the peels from the liquid, reserving the liquid for another use, and scatter the peels onto a rack positioned over a Silpat, until they’re cool enough to handle, 4 minutes.
  • Place the peels into a small bowl, cover them with ¼-oz. (1 Tbs) sugar, and toss to coat. Set aside.
  • Zest the remaining lemons. Juice all 4 lemons. Retrieve the set-aside peels, and dump them and their sugar onto a cutting board. Sprinkle with an additional ¼-oz. (1 Tbs) sugar, toss remaining 2 Tbs cherries on top, and mince very finely. Set aside.
  • Alternate the processor between “on” and “pulse” to pulverize the cookies to fine crumbs. You may need to do this in two batches. Transfer it to a mixing bowl. Add zest, cream cheese, 2 Tbs of the juice (repurpose the rest), the extract, and half of the minced peel mixture, and beat until well combined, 30 seconds on speed 2 (of 10). Increase to speed 4 and beat until smooth, 30 seconds. Mix in cherries on lowest speed, 30 seconds. Shape mixture into 45 (1-inch, or ½-oz.) balls. Freeze for 10 minutes.
  • Add shortening to the candy melts, and melt them according to package directions. Remove 8-10 balls from the freezer. Dip them, using a small spatula and a toothpick; place on Silpat, sprinkle lightly with minced peel mixture. Repeat with more balls. Allow to harden.
  • Refrigerate until firm, 1 hour. Keep refrigerated. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Notes

  • The consensus on how long cream cheese can stay out of the fridge seems to be two hours. Do your own research before making a decision.
  • Peel the lemon exactly as if you were peeling a potato. You’re going to get some pith along with the rind, but that’s fine.
  • You can blanch the peels as many as five more times if you wish, draining the water between each blanching. Blanching removes bitterness. A single blanching will leave a clearly bitter note in the finished candied peel, and a subtle heat that blooms very slowly afterward, though this won’t be apparent in the finished cookie.
  • The candied lemon can be made in advance. Store at room temperature.
  • You don’t have to wait for cream cheese to soften. Fifteen seconds in the microwave (out of its wrapper, on a microwave-safe plate) will do it perfectly.
  • When freezing the balls, you can stack them two deep, but not more than that.
  • (Shh … don’t tell anyone, but “vegetable shortening” is Crisco.)
"Lemon Cranberry Snowballs," from Make It Like a Man!

The Backstory

I realize that there are such things as Lemon Oreos, and that you could simply use them instead of lemoning up vanilla cookies. But the method I’ve used creates a much more natural lemon flavor … which may not be saying much, considering that you’re adding that flavor to an Oreo. But hey. I suppose you could make your own vanilla cookies as a starting point. But then you’re going to feel like next, you need to temper some white chocolate. Go, you! While you’re at it, maybe you could make your own cheese from the free-range cow that roams your neighborhood.

David, at Spiced, inspired me to create these snowdrops with a his recipe for a salted-caramel, chocolate version of this cookie. King Arthur also gave me a bit of an assist.

Social Learning

Dipping is going to be a mess, so just brace yourself for that.

Once you’ve fully melted the candy melt, it’s as thin as it’s going to get. Heating it further is unlikely to make it any thinner. In fact, if you get it too hot, it will begin to thicken and become mousse-like. If it does this, it’s very probably unrecoverable. If your melted candy melt isn’t thin enough, what it needs isn’t more heat, but more shortening. On the other hand, if you’ve been working with the melt for a while, it will begin to cool, and as it does, it will begin to thicken. In that case, it does need a bit of reheating.

There are plenty of ways to dip. For these balls, what worked best for me was to use a small spatula – the kind you’d use to get the last bit of mayo out a jar – to toss a ball around in the candy melt. Then, stick the ball lightly with a toothpick, invert it, remove the spatula, drip a little extra melt onto the ball if need be, and then move it to the Silpat and cajole the toothpick out of the ball. Immediately sprinkle peel onto the ball, because the melt will harden in seconds.

Candy melt, if you’re unfamiliar, is more likely to be found at a craft store than a grocery. In its unadulterated form, it has a snap when you break a piece. Thinning it out with Crisco not only makes it easier to coat things, but allows your coating to be thinner, and softens the snap a little – all of which are desireable. If you have any leftover, pour it into a muffin tin or ice cube tray and let it harden. It can be reused.

Lemon Cranberry Snowdrops

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor and Proper Circle. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. 

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30 thoughts on “Lemon Cranberry Snowdrops”

  1. What a visual and taste treat, Jeff! This would be fun to make over the holidays,,, I’m sure that is your intent here! And I’ll definitely keep quiet about the vegetable shortening! 🙂

    Reply

  5. I’m not a huge fan of oreos on their own (They’re kind of boring and bland to my liking!), but k love using them for other recipes. And these lemon snowdrops look and sound terrific – luscious, creamy, and so delicious!

    Reply

  8. OMG Jeff – my mouth is watering! I would love to be biting into one, two, three of these right now. Love oreos, but I don’t remember ever having seen Golden oreos. Interesting. Well they certainly made a beautiful snowdrop and you did an excellent job in making these irresistible.

    Reply

    • Golden Oreos seem to come and go. Although, these days, who knows what stores can or can’t stock!

      Reply

  10. What a fun idea, Jeff! I have to ask, though – how did you know about Bessie, our free-range cow that roams our street? 🙂 Seriously, though, I really like this recipe – the candied lemon + vanilla Oreos sounds like a really tasty combination. (Of course, that’s assuming I don’t eat all of the vanilla Oreos first…I love those things!!) Thanks so much for the shout-out, my friend!
    David @ Spiced recently posted…Chocolate Amaretto Pound Cake

    Reply

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