Lime Meltaways

You know the hard thing about not writing my blog posts soon after making a recipe? The problem is that I look on my camera and occasionally see something tasty I made and can't remember for the life of me where I put the dang recipe.

I have a nice collection of recipe books (most of them being dessert or chocolate oriented because, let's get straight to the point, dessert is almost always my favorite part of a meal.) I also have a box of recipe cards and small clippings. Then, there is my recipe binder. This is something I started waaaayyyy back in my sophmore year of high school. I took a foods class and the teacher had us keep a folder with the recipes we made in the class. I thought this was a wonderful way to keep track of all the recipes I print out. Let's face it, I print out lots of recipes. So my recipe folder eventually turned into a recipe binder, which has just somewhat recently been upgraded to a larger binder.

I do keep my recipe binder organized. I used every page divider I could find in the house. I think the largest section is devoted to recipes I would like to try. After that, desserts and other treats definitely takes the cake.

Anyways, let's get focused now. I got up early this morning while my husband got ready for work. I am a morning person, although you could probably never tell by how hard it is for me to wake up sometimes. I decided long ago that getting up early helps me make sure I get things around the house taken care of because *this* is when I am the most productive, by far. So I ate some breakfast, checked my email and here we are. Found my camera and went back into the memory looking for a recipe to write about, today, it's going to be Lime Meltaways.

Mine were actually more like Key Lime Meltaways, but regular, plain 'ol limes will work just fine for this application. Hubby and I stumbled upon a key lime tree and gathered about half a dozen to a dozen or so. I juiced lots of them for the recipe, and let me tell you what a pain it was! I didn't even get half of the juice I needed, but luckily, I have key lime juice in the fridge. I have been able to find it in stores with the regular lime and lemon juice.

These cookies were worth the work. As the name states, they seem to just melt away in your mouth. I think I might try the recipe with lemon juice sometime. Yummy!

Lime Meltaways

(Recipe slightly adapted from marthastewart.com)

12 tbl. unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c. powdered sugar, divided

finely grated zest of 2 or 3 limes

2 tbl. lime juice

1 tbl. vanilla

1 3/4 c. plus 2 tbl. all purpose flour (this is 2 c. minus 2 tbl. if you want to look at it differently)

2 tbl. cornstarch

In a mixer bowl, whisk together the butter and 1/3 c. sugar until nice and fluffy. Add in the zest, lime juice and vanilla, beat again until nice and fluffy.

In another bowl, mix together the flour and cornstarch (or just add it to the butter mixture like I did) and add to the butter mixture. Beat on a lower speed until everything is nice and combined.

Divide the dough into two equal portions. Roll each portion into a 1 1/4inch log in a piece of parchment paper. Stick the logs in the fridge for at least an hour, up to overnight to chill and firm up.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment, or lightly grease with nonstick spray, or even use a silpat baking mat (so many options!!). Take one of the logs from the fridge, remove the parchment and cut into 1/8 inch thick pieces. Place the pieces on the baking sheet about an inch apart- these shouldn't spread too much while baking. Then do the same with the other log of cookie dough.

Bake until they are just turning golden around the edges, between 5 to 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, because it can happen fast. Move the cooked cookies to a baking rack to cool slightly. Once they are all on the rack, it's time to dust them.

Put the remaining 2/3 c. powdered sugar into a resealable sandwich bag and place a few cookies at a time into the bag and toss gently to coat. Put the coated cookies back on the rack and repeat until all of the cookies have a nice dusting of sugar. Enjoy!!

Linked up with:

• Tuesday Night Supper Club at Fudge Ripple
• Tuesday at the Table at All The Small Stuff
• Foodie Friday at Designs By Gollum
• Countdown to 2011 at Finding Joy in my Kitchen