Continuing on with my crystal cookies, I wanted to do a lemon-poppyseed cookie, a flavor combination I love, and I also wanted to do lemon crystals, which will be similarly made to Turkish delight. Since Turkish delight does traditionally use a flower to flavor it, being rose, I wanted to use elderflower instead, and use meyer lemons, to give it more of a fragrance and acidity as opposed to just the floral rose taste of Turkish delight. That and I wanted to customize the crystal aspect of the cookie to the flavor that I was going for instead. I went with a lemon poppyseed cookie, since it is such a classic flavor profile and with the sweetness of the Meyer lemon, it really has that dessert-esque feel, as opposed to just the taste of a muffin.

Makes 12 cookies:
For the crystals:
Juice and zest from 3 meyer lemons
2 tablespoons elderflower liquor
a pinch of salt
1 packet of gelatin powder
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Melt down the gelatin with water and cornstarch. In a pot, reduce the lemon juice, zest, elderflower, and sugar, heating it to 220 degrees F. Mix the two mixtures together and whisk on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. Line a tray with cornstarch and scrap the mixture out of the pot onto the tray. Freeze for 1 hour before cutting into cubes and freezing overnight.

For the cookie dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 eggs
juice and zest from 2 meyer lemons
1 1/2 tablespoons poppyseeds
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Whip butter with granulated sugar, salt, poppyseeds, baking powder and soda, and vanilla for 10 minutes. Reduce down the lemon juice and zest together in a pot to about 2 tablespoons of liquid and add into the butter, alongside the eggs, one at a time. Then fold in your flour, and finally, your frozen-solid crystals. Scoop onto a sheet tray and allow them to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes, so to let the crystals thaw and come up to temp/bring the rest of the dough down in temp. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, rotating halfway through to allow for even baking.