Key Lime Frosted Cookies

Confession.  I'm borderline obsessed with key lime, and while I love my momma's crazy good key lime cheesecake, I wanted a quick-fix dessert that could satiate my summertime craving, without taking a whole day to prepare!  My good friend, Erin, brought an orange version of this cookie to Pennsylvania when she and her hubby came to visit, and I was hooked!  When thinking through a seasonal desserty snack to bring to a bible study, I couldn't keep my mind off these cookies.....but why not do a key lime version????  Anyways, they were an absolute hit - a great combo of sweetness and tang - definitely not for the faint of heart! 

Cookie

- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 cup light sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup key lime juice
- 3 tbs lime zest

Set your oven to 375 degrees.  Start making the cookie batter by blending the sugar and butter until fluffy, and then add the sour cream, vanilla extract, and eggs, making sure it all comes together well.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl, and then incorporate they dry ingredients into the wet.  Don't over mix, or the batter will get a bit tough.  Lastly, add the juice and zest.  Using a small ice cream scooper, drop batter onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart to allow room for spreading.

Place sheets into the oven for about 10-12 minutes, rotating midway through the baking.  The cookies will be soft when finished baking, and there actually shouldn't be too much browning around the edges.  Allow time to cool on a rack while you whip up the frosting.


Frosting
- 1/4 cup softened butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbs lime zest
- 3 tbs key lime juice, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt

Combine all of the frosting ingredients in a bowl until all of the lumps and clumps are gone.  Frost the tops of the "mostly" cooled cookies, allowing the slightly-warmer-than-room-temp cookies to soften the frosting, melting the wonderfully tart topping all over the ooey, gooey cake-like cookies.......then TRY to not eat the whole batch :)  Hope you enjoy this little recipe to kick-start the summer!

Chocolate Chip and Coconut Meringue Cookies

The challenge was: bring dessert to bible study that can accommodate a person with celiac disease (ie no gluten, ie no flour) and another person that is deathly allergic to dairy (yup, that means no butter *tear*)...oh, and another person that's allergic to nuts. Individually, none of these things are impossible, but together, I found this to be quite the challenge!

After a while of google-ing without finding anything remotely appetizing or dessert-worthy, I resorted to scouring my many bent-up and flour-covered cookbooks....lo and behold MERINGUE!  No dairy, no flour (score!) and no nuts.  Lets just say, I did a little dance in my 6 x 8 foot kitchen :)

So here it is, from my no-name, wedding present, chocolate cookbook.....I don't think you can get much easier that this :)

- 3 large egg whites (or 1/3 cup plus 3 tbs of egg beaters)
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups chocolate chips (and there are some kinds without any dairy, believe it or not!)
- 2 cups coconut
- Cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Beat the egg whites until they begin to get foamy, and then add the salt and the cream of tarter.  Continue beating until soft peaks form (when lifting up a spatula from the mixture, a peak forms that then flops over into a pretty little "Dairy Queen" curl, and then gradually add the sugar and vanilla.  Then beat until stiffer peaks form.  Using a spatula, fold in 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips and all of the coconut.

Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and grease them with the cooking spray. Drop by small spoonfuls onto the sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between cookies (they don't spread much).  I actually bought a small ice cream scooper for cookies like this - speeds up the process and keeps all of the cookies the same size so everything bakes evenly.  Use the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to press 3 or 4 chips into the batter of each cookie. 

Bake for 20 minutes until the edges get oh-so-slightly brown, and the top begins to crack.  Don't attempt to move cookies off the aluminum foil until they are completely cooled or they will crumble. 

These simple cookies were quite the success - no leftovers to take back home (sorry John!).  Who knew a dessert without butter could be so tasty???? 

Enjoy!

Aggression Cookies

Weird name, but quite a tasty cookie!  The wonderful molasses-sweet crunch of demerara sugar (also known as turbinado sugar, or "sugar in the raw") combined with the richness of rolled oats - plus you can snaz them up with whatever you have lying around the kitchen (I find that white chocolate chips taste wonderful in these cookies, but nuts or dried fruit could also work).  I have to say, I'm not much a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies mostly due to the raisin part, so these are quite a nice alternative. 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, they are called aggression cookies given that you can punch, smoosh, squeeze, smash, and take all your frustrations out on the dough in order to combine all the ingredients.  You can't over mix it!  Great for kids :)

- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups softened unsalted butter
- 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips
- about 1 cup demerara sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine brown sugar, butter, oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, salt, and white chocolate chips, if you desire.  Mix/mash/squish/punch with hands until all ingredients are combined.  

Form dough into small balls around 1 inch in diameter.  I find that using a small ice cream scoop works amazingly well for this, and makes the cookies identical in size so they cook evenly.

Pour around a cup of demerara sugar into a bowl (or substitute granulated if you can't find demerara sugar).  One-by-one, place a ball of cookie dough into the sugar, and press to flatten, until it's about 1/2 inch thick.  Flip the flattened dough and press to coat the other side of the cookie with sugar.  Place coated cookies onto parchment-lined cookie sheets, keeping at least 2 inches between the cookies - they spread!

Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes, based on your oven, until they turn slightly browned around the edges and flatten significantly.  Turn cookie sheets once in the middle of baking to ensure even baking.  Once done, let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before you move them to a cooling rack or a paper towel-lined counter or else they will crumble everywhere - and then you will be forced to eat them :)

I think you'll find these to be quite the crowd-pleaser.  Enjoy!

Bird's Nest Cookies

Gotta give it to Ina.  In her book "Barefoot Contessa Family Style," she shares this wonderful recipe.  So, I'm not claiming as my own due to the fact that it's wonderful as-is.  Only thing I'm claiming is the name :)  Originally know as "jam thumbprints," but now known as the "birds nest cookie."

- 3 sticks butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 egg mixed with 1 tbs water for an egg wash
- 3 cups sweetened flaked coconut
- Any flavor jam you like - I used some left-over spiced cranberries I made for the holidays, but apricot jam also tastes wonderful

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a mixer, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla.  Gradually add the flour and salt until dough comes together.  Dump onto a floured surface and form into a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for only 30 minutes (or it will get too hard to work with).

Remove dough from the fridge and form 1 inch round balls.  Dip each ball of dough into the egg wash, the press into the coconut.  Place on parchment paper lined baking sheets 1 inch apart - they won't expand much.  Flatten slightly and use a finger to make a depression in the middle of each cookie.  Using a spoon, place enough of your desired jam in the center of each cookie to fill the indentation, but don't overfill because the jam will boil off the sides of the cookie and burn.

Bake for about 25 minutes until the coconut has browned nicely.  Keep an eye on them while they bake, turning the baking sheets as needed to bake the cookies evenly - the coconut is prone to burn!

 

The cookies taste best when cooled. Enjoy, and thank Ina!