Lime Sugar Cookies

What About Now by Lonestar
A song about taking advantage of a good deal and seizing the moment.  He was talking about a car for sale.  I'm talking about a bag of limes.  Yep.  A whooooooole bag.  Of limes.  It works.  Be patient and read on . . .

I made another Disneyland Costco run about a week and a half ago.  It had been almost two months since my last trip and I was in agony!  So, when my list of needed items finally got to the "gotta go" stage, I cheerfully informed my husband that it was time for a Costco outing!!!!  He knows how I feel.  How I don't like to be rushed.  How I loooove a slow perusal of every aisle (sans the automotive stuff.)  He's fine with it.  He gets lost, too.  We run into each other now and then - but I keep the cart.  It's understood that I'm more likely to find something we can't live without than he is - like the bag of limes.  A whole bag of limes.

Let me tell you what popped into my head when I saw that sack of citrus.  First thought - Brazilian Limeade - like the kind you get at those Brazilian Steakhouses.  Or the kind my friend Lara served for lunch one day at her house.  It's creamy and "knock-your-socks-off" good.  Lara used a recipe from the Our Best Bites cookbook (which you can find at Costco - win!)  When my eyes rested upon all those limes I was attacked with a sudden thirst for that drink.  That drink takes alot of limes.  That bag would be used up so I could justify a purchase of such a large quantity.

Second thought - Coconut Lime Cake.  I had been offered a friendly challenge by a friend who is also a baker.  She's known for her delicious desserts.  She posted a pic of a Coconut Lime Cake on her Facebook wall one day and the comments began.  At the end, she invited me to bake her my own version of a Coconut Lime Cake.  I had yet to do so.  So I would REALLY use all of those limes.  Purchase justification complete!  Boom - into the cart the bag went.

Into my fridge fruit bin that bag of limes went when we got home.  And in that bin they stayed.  And stayed.  And became forgotten.  Thankfully, limes are patient.  Until they're not.

Eventually, whenever I opened the fridge door those darn limes would start singing this Lonestar song - "What about now, how 'bout tonight!?  Baby, for once, let's don't think twice!"  The limeade wouldn't fit the menu that night.  And I STILL hadn't had time to come up with a Coconut Lime Cake recipe.  What to do?  What to do?  I need to USE THOSE LIMES!  At least I had to use some of them to keep them quiet!! 

And the idea of a lime cookie just materialized out of nowhere - during my workout.  Hmmm.

Anyway - I knew that these cookies would take the heat off for a couple more days.  They ended up being very, very tasty.  The limes in the fridge fruit bin are pacified - for now.  I'm sensing some limeade in the near future, though.  Maybe even some cake!  But, for now, these little darlings have saved the day!

Lime Sugar Cookies

makes 4 dozen 2" rounds

Printable Recipe Card

3 c. flour (400 g)

1 c. sugar (200 g)

zest from 3 limes

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. kosher salt

1 c. butter, softened (227 g)

1 egg

3 T. fresh lime juice

1 t. vanilla extract

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, zest, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until well blended. Add the soft butter and mix until the ingredients resemble a coarse meal.

In a separate bowl beat together the egg and vanilla extract.  Add to the mixer bowl along with the lime juice.  Mix just until mixture comes together.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

When time to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out the dough, working a half at a time, on a lightly floured surface.  Roll to a 1/4" thickness.  Cut out 2" circles and place on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Remove and let cool.

While cooling make the glace frosting.

Glace Frosting

1 lb. powdered sugar

6 - 7 T. fresh lime juice

6 T. light corn syrup

1 t. vanilla extract

green food coloring, I used a gel

1/2 c. baker's ultra fine sugar

In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lime juice until smooth.  Stir in the corn syrup and vanilla extract.  

Divide the mixture up into three parts but not equally.  You'll need about half for the flooding color.  Divide the other half into two parts for the rind and criss-cross pattern.  Add a little more powdered sugar to the portion reserved for the dark green rind color.  That needs to be a bit thicker to form the "wall."  Add enough green food coloring to get the dark green.  Add some of the dark green mixture to the largest portion of glace to achieve a light green color you need for the centers.  To the third portion of glace, add just a bit of the light green to get just a tinge of green  This will be the criss-cross "membranes" part that you add at the end.

Place each color in a squeeze bottle or a pastry bag.  The bag with the dark green glace needs to be fitted with a tip with a small opening.  I used a Wilton #5.

Place the ultra find baker's sugar in the center of a salad plate.

Outline each cookie with the dark green thicker glace.  I found it better to keep the bag stationary and move my body instead of my wrists.

Give the rind a pretty sparkle by ever so gently pressing the piped cookie into the ultra fine baker's sugar and gently tapping off the extra.  

By the time you're done with that step they'll be ready to be "flooded" with the medium green glace.  Snip the tip off of the pastry bag and squeeze in the looser glace.  Give it just enough so that it will ooze out to the edges.  You will need to coax it a bit with a spoon or small spatula but you'll want the center to meet the dark green edge.

Let sit to dry for about 3 - 4 hours.  That center needs to dry enough to support the last step or else it'll just sink down in!

After the tops are set up enough you should be able to tap and lightly run your finger across the top.  

Use the lightest barely tinged green glace and pipe 3 lines across the top, trying to make them as evenly spaced as possible.  It's OK if they're not.  I've sectioned enough citrus to know that nature doesn't make them evenly segmented either!

Let them dry for another 3 - 4 hours - or, preferably, overnight!  That way you can stack them and not worry about smudging!

Enjoy these sweet-tart goodies!