Key Lime Cookies

Amongst the great pies of the world, Key Lime holds high honors. Having purchased a bottle of organic key lime juice for another baking episode, I had far too much left to just spill it out. My goal, as a true cookie monster, was then to create a cookie that tastes like Key Lime pie.

This recipe is heavily modified from one I found on a web search. It yields a dense cookie and, if you use enough lime zest, it will immediately remind you of the last Key Lime pie you ate.

Ingredients

  • 3 teaspoons of fresh lime zest. If you choose to be authentic, you will need around 50 Key Limes and a box of bandaids. A standard lime, roughly 2" in diameter, will yield 1 teaspoon of dark green zest. You can get more out of it, but you really just want the dark green surface. Prepare the zest first; it takes a bit longer if you do it right and you're going to need it for the next step.
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1-1/2 cups white sugar
  • 2 eggs (high altitude - increase to 3 eggs)
  • 1/3 cup Key Lime juice. It's not that hard to find in Florida, but give it a shot. High end grocers should have it in stock, your local supermarket probably won't so if you have to use commercial lime juice, go ahead.
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder (high altitude - decrease to 1/2 teaspoon)
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour

Construction

  • Cream the stick of softened butter with the sugar and lime zest. When it's good and creamy, add in the eggs, and Key Lime juice.
  • Add the baking powder and flour and mix well.
  • Put the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Don't skimp here! Two hours is even better; it has to setup otherwise you will get runny cookies and they will stick to your hands as you roll them into balls.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (high altitude - 365 degrees.)
  • Roll the dough into 1" diameter balls and give them space to spread on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
  • Bake until the bottom edge starts to turn golden brown. These take around 20 minutes. Be patient, they have to just start to get brown edges or they are not done and you will leave the guts of the cookie behind on the parchment paper.
  • Yields 3 dozen cookies.