Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Little Lime's Last Hurrah: Lime Zest Sugar Cookies

Ok, this post is a little bit tragic and its taken me a while to write it... after my little lime finally grew up and fell off his tree, I knew I had to use him for something good. The first thing I wanted to do, before he became a key ingredient in a number of delicious drinks, was to use the zest for something delicious. I love citrus zest... this love only became stronger when I acquired a microplane grater, which I highly recommend to everyone- it is so fast! and easy to clean!. At this point, if I have a lemon, zest goes in everything until its gone. Yogurt. Oatmeal. Everything. You name it.
I thought the best thing would be something very simple that highlighted the flavor of the zest, and finally arrived at the idea of a very simple cookie. I found a promising recipe on recipezaar and set to work.

This is what you need:
zest of 1 large lime
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces (yes, actual butter)
2 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
.5 teaspoon baking soda
.25 teaspoon salt

Process zest and sugar in food processor so zest is extremely fine. Add butter and process further. Add dry ingredients and process until mixed. These are refrigerator cookies, so you should roll the dough into two logs, wrap in waxed paper, and chill. When you're ready, slice and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

This is what I ended up with:
This does NOT look like the picture. They were bizarre and sort of lacey and left tons of butter on the cookie sheet. They were extremely crunchy and were ok, but weren't the cookie of my dreams.

In retrospect, I realized I made a series of ridiculous mistakes, probably because I was over excited about using up the lime. I did not put in baking soda (how this happened I don't know). I also accidentally only put in 2c flour, and it wasn't cake flour or sifted (because I am impatient). I feel a little like I failed the lime, which is why it took me a while to post this. But, I think the cookies themselves have some potential, as long as you actually pay attention while you make them!

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