Earl Grey Tea Coookies

An old coworker of mine used to make these all the time, and before she left, I made sure to get her recipe. They're unlike any cookie I've had - like a sugar cookie with "tea" and lemon flavors. Very yummy - but baker beware - use decaf tea if you plan to eat them at night! My husband and I couldn't figure out why we couldn't fall asleep at night after the first time I made these. It didn't take us long to realize it was the tea in the cookies - haha.

The original recipe from realsimple.com says to use a food processor to pulse together ingredients, but since I don't have a large enough food processor, I just used a large mixing bowl and my hand mixer, and they came out great!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea leaves (contents of 6 tea bags)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  
• Mix the flour, granulated sugar, confectioners sugar, tea bag contents, salt together in a large mixing bowl.
• Add in vanilla, 1 teaspoon of water, and the butter.
• Mix until a dough is formed.
• Divide the dough in half and place each half on a sheet of wax paper. Roll each half into a 12-inch log, about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
• Slice log into discs, about 1/3-inch thick. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet 2 inches apart.
• Bake 11-12 minutes or just until the edges are golden brown.
• Let cool on pan for 3 minutes, transfer to wire racks.