Thursday, April 24, 2014

Deborah's Lime Cookies

5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sal
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups butter, soft
1 – 2 tsp lime zest (no substitutions)
2 tsp vanilla
½ tsp butter extract
4 eggs
(You'll need about 2 – 3 limes total for lime zest and juice.)
 
In a medium bowl, add flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
 
Beat together sugar, butter, lime zest, vanilla and butter extract until creamed. Add eggs, mixing between each, until well incorporated. (The longer you beat, the fluffier the dough.) Slowly add the flour mixture and combine well.
 
Divide the dough into thirds. Make into logs, roll in parchment paper (or wax paper) and refrigerate for at least one hour.
 
Slice dough into pieces about an inch thick. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Flatten pieces to ¼ to ½ inch thickness using a spatula or rolling pin. (If you top with parchment paper first, it will keep the dough from sticking to the spatula or rolling pin. Or you can periodically spray the spatula with cooking spray.)
 
Bake on 350 for 9 – 10 minutes. Cookies will not brown.
 
 
Lime Frosting
 
4 cups powdered sugar
3 ½ tsp lime juice
½ tsp lime zest
3 TBSP corn syrup
1 T milk
½ tsp butter extract
½ tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
 
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon until smooth. It should be thick but gooey.
 
When cookies are completely cool, ladle a spoonful onto the center of cookie and spread in a circular motion. The frosting should spread but be thick enough not to spill over the side. Let the cookies sit for at least an hour in order for the frosting to harden/form a shell. Let them set overnight if you plan to stack them to store or transport. Otherwise the frosting won’t be hard enough and the cookies will stick to each other.
 
 
*D*: This is a recipe my mom and I created together. She made the base and I tweaked it with lime until I loved it. This recipe makes about 5 dz cookies. USE REAL LIMES! If you're like me, you don't have limes on hand, but you do not want to skimp to make this recipe. You'll want the real zest and fresh juice. I'm a big fan of lime juice from a bottle, but not for this. Trust me. And the zest adds these charming green specks in the frosting and they're beautiful.
Pin It