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Fresh Cookie Fridays
Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: 2021/08 – August
Bee Gleeson’s exquisite shortbread cookies make any day a celebration, regardless of the season.
Bee Gleeson
At the Gleeson’s, summer is celebrated with cookies.
Truth be told, Bee Gleeson believes in observing all the seasons with cookies. She is, in fact, a big fan of the seasons – she tells me it is why she loves living on the Plateau – “where all the seasons are extreme,” the very best versions of themselves, so to speak.
“We have the most glorious summers, idyllic springs, postcard-perfect winters, and of course an autumn that the rest of the world longs to replicate.”
And so it is for summer, when citrusy tastes are so favored; she brings us her recipe for Lemon-Lime Basil cookies. Gleeson has been making these tiny expressions of summer with their celebration of all things seasonally fresh – lemons, limes, and basil –for nearly 15 years. For most of those years, she made them only for family and friends – trying to make them faster than husband Pat – “the infamous cookie snatcher” could grab the dough from the bowl and thus prevent a full batch production.
Today she makes them every Friday for “Fresh Cookie Fridays” at the White Oak Realty office where she and Pat work.
The cookies have become an expression of the couple’s joint desires to be hospitable, to welcome clients and walk-ins, and to validate and enhance the small-town feeling of life in Highlands.
Bee tells me that these light shortbread cookies are only 90 calories apiece…and easy to make.
Lemon-Lime Basil Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
1 Cup All Purpose Flour (I use White Lily for Baking)
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Chilled, unsalted butter (1 stick)
2 TBSP. Sliced, fresh Basil leaves (about 5)
1 tsp. Finely grated lemon zest
1 TBSP. Fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. Finely grated lime zest
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Place all ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until large, moist clumps form. Measure a level tablespoon of dough and roll between your palms to form balls. * (Tip: pop dough in refrigerator for 10 min. to firm up before rolling into balls).
3. Place on large cookie sheet about 2” apart. With moist fingers, gently press the balls into rounds. Bake until edges are brown about 15- 20 minutes.
4. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. If you prefer a sweeter cookie, immediately sprinkle with powdered sugar or Sugar in
the Raw.
by Marlene Osteen
