Calamansi Crinkle Cookies

Calamansi is a citrus fruit native here in the Philippines. It's green like a lime on the outside, but orange inside and is about a third of the size of a golf ball. It tastes sour, with a tiny hint of sweetness. It's the Philippine lemon, if you will. Calamansi is used in a lot of Filipino dishes and I love it!

I'm a big fan of lemon and anything sour. Unfortunately, there aren't any lemons here in the town I'm in. While browsing around Pinterest, I saw a recipe for Lemon Crinkle Cookies and it sounded so good! So I decided to work with what I have available here and substituted lemon for calamansi. These Calamansi Crinkle Cookies turned out delicious.

Calamansi Crinkle Cookies
Of course, you can replace "calamansi" with lemon.
{Printable Recipe}

Ingredients:
- 1/2 C. butter, softened
- 1 C. granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. calamansi zest
- 2 1/2 Tbs. fresh calamansi juice
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/8 tsp. baking soda
- 1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 C. powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with parchment paper (or grease).
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, calamansi zest & juice. Scrape sides and mix again.
3. Stir in dry ingredients slowly, excluding powdered sugar, until just combined-- don't over mix!

4. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar (I put the dough in the fridge for about half an hour so it was easier to handle). Place on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes (if using a non-stick darker baking sheet, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes) or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte.
6. Remove from oven and cool cookies for about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.