Nathanial Hawthorne once said, “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

I think the same can be said for inspiration. It finds you not when you’re hunting for it, but in a moment of leisure, enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon, shaded by a big oak and enjoying a large glass of iced tea with lemon. I don’t often have tea at home with lemon, but the local grocer had them on sale and I found myself grabbing one without much thought of its prescience.

To pass the time, I turned slowly through a magazine. It was an old one, but one that featured a dozen cakes and that was what I was focused on – finding a perfect cake. What I found instead was nothing short of inspiration.

Maybe it was the idea of rosemary in a cookie that caught my attention initially, but it was the lemon that made me pause. I was drawn to a small photograph featuring a lemon sandwich cookie and I knew it was only a matter of time before I made a vegan version of these cookies for myself. Well, and for my family too. Like my mom always used to tell me, it’s nice to share. There’s just some days where I don’t really want to.

Rosemary Lemon Sandwich Cookies

(Recipe adapted from the February 2008 Better Homes and Garden — Makes  approximately 20 cookies)

Lemon Filling Ingredients:

• ½ cup lemon juice
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy milk
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon dairy free margarine
• ½ cup vegan cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 cup dairy-free margarine
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons rosemary (fresh or dried works just fine)
• 3 teaspoons finely shredded lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 ¼ cups flour
• ½ cup sugar combined with ½ teaspoon or rosemary

Lemon Filling Preparation:

1. Begin by making your lemon curd because it will need to cool before you can finish making the filling.
2. Combine lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
3. In a separate bowl, add corn starch to cold soy milk and stir until corn starch is dissolved.
4. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the lemon sauce, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
5. Raise heat to medium high and continue cooking while stirring until the sauce thickens.
6. Next, add the fresh lemon zest and margarine and stir until well combined.
7. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
8. Once the lemon curd has cooled, add the vegan cream cheese and powdered sugar and stir well to remove all lumps.
9. I gave it a few turns with the immersion blender to get it nice and smooth.
10. Refrigerate the Lemon Filling while you make the cookies.

Cookie Preparation:

1. Heat your oven to 350 F.
2. In a mixing bowl beat together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Next add the rosemary, lemon peel, and vanilla, and continue beating until all the ingredients are well combined.
4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the flour mixture gradually into the wet ingredients.
5. Use a cookie dough scoop (or a tablespoon) to measure equal amounts of batter.
6. Roll the batter into balls and roll the balls in prepared sugar (1/2 cup of sugar combined with ½ teaspoon of rosemary).
7. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet with about 1 -2 inches of space between them.
8. Flatten cookies with the bottom of a glass (you can dip that in the prepared sugar as well to help the cookie not stick to the glass).
9. Bake the cookies 8 – 10 minutes until lightly browned.
10. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
11. Repeat this process until all the cookie dough is gone.
12. Assemble the cookies by spreading the Lemon Filling on the flat side of one cookie and top with the flat side placed down on the filling.
13. Continue this process until all the cookies are adequately filled.

If you’re lucky enough to have some of that Lemon Filling left over, enjoy it spread over a muffin or pancake for tomorrow’s breakfast. It is heavenly!

The magazine credits Kristina Vanni of Los Angeles for sharing her family recipe. This vegan version created a crisp cookie with a sweet but tart lemon filling and a surprising hint of rosemary.

I was not searching for a lemon cookie on this day, but the unsolicited inspiration may have just developed into adopting this family recipe – a vegan family tradition of our own.

Sandwich Cookies Image Source: Marly McMillen