Alice in the Kitchen

Thirteen Years of Ham ‘N Goodys Lemon Cookies

There’s a fabulous sandwich shop in Tennessee called Ham ‘N Goodys.  But what makes it really fabulous is the Goodys part of the name – they have a fantastic bakery with delicious cookies and cakes.

My favorite was always the lemon glazed cookies, so much so that I was on the lookout for a recipe many, many years ago.  The well worn, well loved recipe that I found to be the best is no longer available online.  It came from the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and it was republished on  a website called Tennessee Hillbilly that no longer exists.  I printed out this recipe exactly thirteen years ago tomorrow – July 16, 2003!  (P.S. Thanks to my dad for supporting my packrat nature and locating this recipe copy within about 60 seconds of me asking for it.)

The News Sentinel now supplies a difference version of the recipe, without cake mix, which I have also made and which is not as good.

The only change I make from the recipe above is to cook the cookies at 350 instead of 375, as my oven runs hot.

You will need:

• 1 package lemon cake mix (I have used DH and BC – same results)
• 1 T. lemon juice
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup powdered sugar (for the glaze)
• 2 T. lemon juice (for the glaze)
• 1 t. grated lemon rind (for the glaze – optional, and I never include this)

Heat the oven to 350.

Combine the cake mix, lemon juice, oil, and eggs.  Form balls about the size of golf balls.  The larger the cookie, the softer they will be.  At 350, you will need to cook them for 10 minutes.

Combine the ingredients for the glaze and apply to the cookies.  The original receipt says to let the cookies cool before doing this, but I don’t usually, and it’s fine.

I have found one batch makes about 16 3-inch cookies.  Let the glaze dry for a few hours and there you have it!