Frosted Citrus Drops

You may have figured out by now that I love Canadian Living Magazine and that I frequently use their recipes. Since my Christmas baking this year has been a bit chocolate-heavy (not that there's anything wrong with that) I was looking for something different to add to my selection this year, and this recipe came at just the right time, specifically from the January 2009 issue. Now, the original recipe uses oranges and is called Frosted Orange Drops, but because I had a whole bunch of grapefruit on hand that needed using up, and because I don't think there are nearly enough recipes utilizing grapefruit out there, I decided to make that substitution when I embarked upon making these cookies.

Frosted Grapefruit Drops, adapted from Canadian Living by yours truly

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp finely grated grapefruit rind
2 cups all purpose flour

Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp grapefruit juice
1/2 tsp finely grated grapefruit rind

1. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy; bean in orange rind. Stir in flour, 1 cup at a time. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Shape by 1 tbsp into balls (I used my trusty #70 cookie scoop). Place 1" apart on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake at 300F until bottoms are lightly browned, about 20 - 25 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.
4. For the icing: In a bowl, beat everything together until smooth. Spread icing on top of cookies. Let stand until firm, about 1 hour.

This was one of the few recipes I've come across from Canadian Living that needed a bit of ... help. The dough didn't come together at all, so I needed to add some grapefruit juice to it in order to get all the dry ingredients incorporated. Minor. The cookies were a tad bland on their own, but were perked up considerably with the icing. Just so you know.

If you make them, let me know what you think and what your experience of the recipe was.