Some of you may wonder what goes on in a professional kitchen on any given day.  Today, I am happy (read, embarrassed) to share what consumed about an hour of my time..

Today?  I spent about an one hour trying to figure out a clever way to get our lemon glaze onto our cookies without having to hand-frost each cookie.  It’s true…this job is really not for the faint of heart.  This is science at its (lamest) best, and only few can handle the stress, the pressure, the complexity of… lemon glaze.

Let’s face it:  the lemon shortbread cookies rock pretty much because of the lemon glaze.  The cookie by itself is true shortbread – crumbly, soft, buttery.  But, it’s the sweet yet tart glaze that elevates these cookies.  I love mixing the glaze, and preparing my work station to glaze the baked, cool, naked cookies.

Here’s the problem:  we have a ton of lemon cookies to glaze every week, and it’s no longer feasible or practical to set just one person to the task of glazing the lemon cookies.  For the sake of sanity and good morale, I need to figure out a slightly easier, less labor-intensive way to apply the glaze to said cookie.  Being a professional, I did what any respectable person in my position would do.  I got on my laptop and ran this through google.  No luck.  Lots of recipes for quick & easy glazes, but no quick & easy methods.  I then tried to put the glaze into a squeeze container.  Acceptable idea for 12 cookies or so, but not for the 500+ lemon cookies we deliver each week.

I thought about a machine, but we’re tight on space.

I pondered thinning the glaze out a tiny bit, so that it would be more amenable to spreading, but that proved to be the biggest disaster of all.  Picture this: cookies sitting in a puddle of transparent muck.  Ick.

My final thought was to use a mini scooper to scoop the glaze onto each cookie, and then to quickly use the off-set spatula to settle & spread the glaze. 

I’m not sure how much time I actually ended up saving, but the good news is that I think it actually made the task a bit easier.  It’s still not the one stop glaze step that I’m looking for, but for now, I’m mildly satisfied.  For any of you inventors out there, please feel free to consider my dilemma and let me know if you have any suggestions and/or solutions.  Until then, I’ll be here, with my scooper & mini spatula.