Last floor hockey of the regular season, last…batch of cookies for the regular season? Guess so! My mother’d bought a bunch of lemon pudding that it turned out she didn’t need, so I looked around for a lemon pudding cookies recipe, then slapped some frosting on top. Why on Earth not?!

“Slap on some frosting” looking a bit too literal here…

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 3.4 ounce box lemon pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract

In this recipe, any time there’s a step in the mixer, just assume you should scrape down the bowl at least once – don’t let any unmixed bits stick to the bottom!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line to baking sheets with parchment and set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the pudding mix and beat until smooth.

Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Spoon rounded tablespoons onto the lined sheets.

Bake 9-10 minutes.

Let cool several minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. They’ll flatten out some while cooling.

To make the frosting, first beat together the butter and cream cheese. Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth, then add the lemon extract and beat again. If you really don’t want to buy lemon extract, you can try lemon juice, but you will probably need more to get as strong a lemon flavor, which might require more powdered sugar if the frosting then gets too thin…

You can make sandwiches if you like…

But mostly I just put some frosting on top. 30 cookies seems like way more than 15 sandwiches!

The pudding makes a tasty flavor, and the cookies are quite light and soft. If you leave the cookies out for a while after frosting, the frosting will harden up and you can transport them (say, to hockey) without getting frosting all over the place.

Lemon Pudding Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Cookie adapted from Missy’s Kitchen Adventures.

Cookies:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 3.4 ounce box lemon pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line to baking sheets with parchment and set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the pudding mix and beat until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Spoon rounded tablespoons onto the lined sheets. Bake 9-10 minutes. Let cool several minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, first beat together the butter and cream cheese. Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth, then add the lemon extract and beat again. Frost the cookies, either on the tops, or frosting the bottom of one and making a sandwich with another cookie.