Scrabble Cookies

Actually, these are Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies. I had this crazy idea of making these cookies into "letter tiles" for my kids to get excited about playing Scrabble, my favorite board game growing up. I love Scrabble and I would always beg my older siblings to play with me. Never mind that I was only five years old at the time and can't spell words longer than 3 letters! But my brothers and sister were kind to their baby sister and would always let me play along.


I was inspired by these periodic table cookies from Not So Humble Pie and also by this post from I am Baker (who took inspiration from this post by Bake at 350.) All this blog-hopping got me thinking maybe I can make them as authentic as possible, good enough so they can be used to play on the board. (Yes, I'm crazy and a nerd!) That means getting the exact dimensions for the letter tiles which surprisingly I cannot find in the Official Scrabble website. So I frantically looked all over the house for the board game but no luck, I think it's still packed away in storage. Then I ask my Twitter followers but no response either (but now Scrabble is following me, ha!)

I ended up just cutting them into 1 by 3/4-inch pieces. They baked quickly since they were small but apparently not small enough as you can see from the picture below. I also didn't have black food coloring for the icing for writing the letters so just used an edible marker which actually made it easier for me. My kids got into this little project I've concocted and helped writing in the letters, too. The not-so-perfect ones were munched right away. :)


But the best part was we actually used the cookies to play a little game of Scrabble. (I ended up buying a new board game.) When I mentioned that I'll be entering this for a contest, my kids wanted to spell them out and my genius first-born exclaimed "Hey, we're playing with our food!" Rather naughtily, I may add so I let them spell them out but we couldn't connect all the words together. :(


Then I told them Andrew Zimmern will be judging the contest, they quickly made this:


But I take full credit for the words spelled on the tile rack. :)

Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies
(Feel free to use your favorite sugar cookie recipe, I just happen to have plenty of Meyer Lemons at the moment. Also, any type of citrus can be substituted)

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
2 tsp fresh Meyer Lemon juice
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
finely grated rind of 1 Meyer Lemon
salt

Put the butter and sugar and mix well with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Then add the egg yolk and juice and beat in. Sift the flour and salt into the bowl and stir until combined. Add the lemon rind and combine once more.

Divide the dough into 2 disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator to chill until firm, about 30 min to an hour.

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Line baking trays with parchment paper. Unwrap the dough, roll to 1/8 inch thick and use a chef's knife to make straight cuts. (A pasty wheel dragged my dough to skewed it, find out what works best for you. If the dough becomes too warm or soft to be transferred to the baking tray, return dough in the refrigerator to chill, 5-10 minutes.

Bake for 6-7 minutes, or until edges turn light brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

To frost the cookies, I used royal icing thinned with a little water. Letters were written using edible markers.


I am submitting my Scrabble Cookies to Tracey Tangled Noodle and Jennifer Savor the Thyme for their Eating Your Words 2010 Challenge.

UPDATE: WOW, thank you so much Mr. Zimmern for choosing my entry as the winner.  I am speechless and my children are ecstatic! Thank you also to Tracey and Jennifer for this fun challenge.