The first thing you need to know about these cookies is that they are highly addictive. They’re just about the right size to pop in your mouth.
Very dangerous to have sitting on the kitchen counter. One pass through the kitchen on the way to the bedroom….pop! Going through the kitchen on the way to the living room….pop! Going back to the kitchen just for more cookies…pop, pop, pop!
I’ve mentioned before that one of the perks of living in Florida is that I have a little lime tree in my side yard. We planted the tree about a year after we moved in and had 4 or 5 limes that first year. The next year, for some strange and unknown reason, half of the tree abruptly up and died. One day it was fine, the next day the leaves were brown, and by the weekend I was cutting off the right half of my tree. It wasn’t a very big tree so with half of it suddenly gone, it truly looked like the Charlie Brown Lime Tree.
Then came a couple winters of freezing temperatures in a part of the country that is not supposed to freeze. Having lived in the frozen north, I went out and swaddled the little cold tree in sheets every night to protect it from the frost.
Much to our delight, in spite of the loss of half its limbs and freezing temps, the lime tree came roaring back. We have limes galore! At least 75 limes this year and more are on the way. And as a bonus, they are huge and juicy.
So when life gives you limes, make cookies!
Here’s what you need:
Limes, Flour, Sugar, Butter, Egg, Baking Powder, Salt, White Chocolate Chips, and Powdered Sugar.
Click here for a Zesty Lime Cookie Shopping List
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Be sure your butter has a chance to sit out and come to room temperature to soften.
In a mixer or large bowl, combine 3/4 cup softened butter and 3/4 cup granulated sugar. Mix or cream the butter and sugar together at medium speed until light yellow and fluffy.
Use a microplane or other small grater to remove the zest from 2 limes.
Add the zest and 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice to the bowl.
Add 1 egg and mix to thoroughly combine.
In a separate bowl, combine 2½ cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Whisk the dry ingredients together to combine and break up any clumps.
With the mixer on the lowest speed, slowly add the flour to the butter mixture. Mix only until the flour is incorporated. Do not over mix. The batter will be quite stiff.
Now for the good stuff…Stir in 1 cup of white chocolate chips.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is an important step to protect the bottom of the cookies and keep them from getting too brown.
Roll the dough into small balls about 1 inch in diameter and place them 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes until the top has slightly cracked and the bottom is just starting to turn golden brown. The cookies will still be very white on top. Don’t wait for them to turn golden like a sugar cookie or they will burn.
Let the cookies cool on the pan for a few minutes to hold their shape then dip them in a small bowl of powdered (confectioner’s) sugar. Place them on a wire rack to continue cooling. If you want a heavier sugar coating, you can dip the cookies in the powdered sugar a second time once they are completely cool.
Then just try to walk by them….
It’s harder than you think!
Here’s the recipe – Adapted from The St. Pete Times
12 Responses
Best Cookies ever!!!!!!!!! And yes, addictive too……………
As for the backyard lime tree, I get to steal one occasionally if needed, they are bigger and juicier than in the Supermarket! But I also help cover the lime tree which is getting quite big when the icy wind blows way down South from Canada!!!
And I used to make fun for having a lime tree in the first place! I’ll eat my words now, because these limes sure are the biggest and freshest and best!
good lord those look good!
Hey, C! These look demonically delish. I adore lime. AS I’m staying away from sugary delectables, though, I won’t be making them. Instead, I reserve my sugar consumption to cocktails, and I think you’d love my favorite discovery of the last year: lime cordial.
I love gimlets– hadn’t had one in probably 20 years, but got a bottle of Rose’s a few years back and had been loving everything about them but the HFCS which is now the sweetener. I went as far as ordering the UK version online– all excited to try the cane sugar variety– but was disappointed. It was just not intense enough, compared to the US version (that still mystifies me). I set out to make some, and went through a couple of online recipes. One involved bringing the juice to a boil, then dissolving an equal amt of sugar in it (I believe he also steeped the zest)– too sweet, and not concentrated enough. I experimented with boiling down some more juice and adding it to the unsatisfactory batch, and it got better with each addition.
Here’s the tactic I ended up with, and I’ve replicated it many times:
1. Zest a bunch of your excellent limes. DO NOT make cookies with it this time.
2. Squeeze enough limes to make a pint of juice.
3. Boil the juice at the highest heat, i.e. as quickly as possible, reducing it to half its original volume. I stand there with a measuring cup, and keep checking.
4. remove from heat, add zest, and allow it to steep for a couple of minutes. Strain.
5. Add an equal amount of white cane sugar (*not* the lovely tan organic kind, which has its own flavor).
6. Pour into a bottle, refrigerate (it keeps for ages), and prepare for the best gimlets of your life!
I like a gin gimlet best, but a RUM gimlet is also excellent– plain old white Bacardi. I like about 3 parts gin to 1 part lime cordial. And of course, it’s also fantastic with just soda and ice.
I’ve done this with grapefruit, too– also excellent. However, I find today’s grapefruit not quite acidic enough, so add fresh lime or lemon juice when I use the grapefruit cordial in a cocktail.
There are a lot of snooty cocktail hobbyists out there who scoff at the traditional gimlet, and say they make them with fresh lime juice. Much though I love fresh lime, that is NOT a gimlet! There’s something particularly delish about the slightly cooked flavor (and concentration) of the lime cordial– including Rose’s– which is just a different animal from fresh juice.
One caveat: Don’t try doing this with more than a pint of juice at a time. I did, and it took a lot longer to reduce– and left me with a product which was TOO cooked-tasting.
Maria! This is a fabulous idea. I love the idea of making lime cordial. If my grapefruit tree does well this year (it’s a really old tree so we never know), I’ll try it with grapefruit as well. I’ll even try to bring some grapefruits up to you this winter as mine are white grapefruits and deliciously tart! Maybe we need to have you doing cocktail guest posts!!!!
Oh, by the way, one of the fastest ways to get your ass kicked in a dive bar in Kansas City is to order a gimlet. Just ask my friend Bob. The crusty old bartender’s reaction was priceless. I, of course, ordered bourbon so I was safe.
Ass kicked? over a GIMLET???
Granted, I do sneer at VODKA Gimlets, but surely anyone with a passing familiarity with Gin Gimlets would realize that they are to be venerated, not scorned! I mean: “a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice and nothing else” (Terry Lennox in Raymond Chandler’s ‘The Long Goodbye’).”
I was also thinking of making lime curd but wasn’t sure what I would do with it other than make a tart or some other dessert.
Me again….Wes makes boozy blackberry cordial. To. Die. For.
Not wanting to sully the lime cookie recipes, but responding to your comment at The Manor – don’t forget Le Petomane!/a>
Whoops, I screwed up the link. Here it is without fancying it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_P%C3%A9tomane
that’s hilarious!
Claudia, You know how jealous I am that you have a lime tree–fresh lime for Beefeater (or North Shore No. 11) and tonic…yummmm! Of course, you don’t have hostas and lilacs without the freeze.
Maria, I had a craving for a gimlet a week or so ago–haven’t had one in nearly thirty years! And the homemade lime cordial sounds fabulous!
I also recently thought I should make the (Scott Peacock) Blackberry Cordial again as it’s been several years. Have to borrow Bill E.’s bottle capper.
And when the two of you team up with Sonia T. for Charles Koechlin’s L’Album de Liliane, be sure you let me know.
Fresh limes are the best…..they taste great in corona’s too!
I love lime cookies. Or lemon cookies…and these look really pop-able!!!