Monday, November 28, 2011

Lime Meltaways


I think I confessed last year right around Christmas baking season that my Type A personality shines like rock star. I love to premake as many of the cookie doughs as possible and refrigerate them all because it's just so happy to bake cookies on a day when there aren't mixers and dishes cluttering the sink and dishwasher.  Starting an early morning baking session with clean countertops, an empty dishwasher and refrigerated dough is happiness indeed.   These lime meltaways are an ultra easy and perfect dough to make ahead and stash in the fridge or even the freezer and they bake up in almost no time at all.  There's something about powdered sugar covered treats that can take you right back to childhood.



The recipe is mostly unaltered from Martha Stewart's original--I only added a second toss in powdered sugar because I found that coating the cookies while still warm was essential for the powdered sugar to stick, but also moistened it a bit so they cookies didn't look so white and powdery.  The second coating just adds a dry layer of white powdered sugar.


Lime Meltaways
from Martha Stewart Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
Finely grated zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions
  1. Put butter and 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add lime zest and juice and vanilla, and mix until fluffy.
  2. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. Add to butter mixture, and mix on low speed until just combined.
  3. Divide dough in half. Place each half on an 8-by-12-inch sheet of parchment paper. Roll in parchment to form a log 1 1/4 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Refrigerate logs until cold and firm, at least 1 hour.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove parchment from logs; cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Space rounds 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, toss cookies with 2/3 cup powdered sugar in a resealable plastic bag. 
  5. When completely cooled, add remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar to bag and toss cookies again. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 weeks.

13 comments:

Lila said...

I have had this recipe bookmarked for ages and have still yet to make them. I'll be giving it a try sometime soon! They look so pretty dropped into the white powdered sugar!

Ellie said...

My family loves those powdered sugar crescents so I think these just might be a way for me to sneak my lime into the mix!

Melissa @ Treats With a Twist said...

I made these cookies in abundance last Christmas season! My family loved them and they were a huge hit everywhere I took them. I cut the first batch as thin as she instructed, and they cooked so quickly that most of them burned, so I found that cutting them thicker was the way to go!
www.treatswithatwist.com

Lila said...

These look so incredibly yummy and we all love citrus in this house. Easy is even better!

Lila said...

I'm always cleaning up as I go because I love clean countertops too! My sister in law made these last year and they were soooo good! I think I'll be making them myself this year.

Lila said...

I made these last year for the first time and they were such a big hit that I was thinking of trying it in both orange and lemon this year too!

Monica said...

OMG I love Lime desserts. Yum!

Lila said...

Forget chocolate, citrus cookies and citrus desserts top my favorites list. These looks SOOOO good!

Lila said...

so delicious looking. I can't wait to try these out this weekend!

Anonymous said...

This recipe looks so good! I love all of the powdered sugar covered shortbread cookies at christmas. :)

sophia said...

I had these at a holiday party last year and had asked for the recipe and then never followed up. Forgot all about them until now so I printed it right up so I would forget again. These are so yummy!

Bronwyn said...

These look so delightful! When I was a kid I used to beg for those powdered sugar donuts all the time. My parents would buy the mixed pack and my brother would eat all of the chocolate and my sister would eat the cinnamon ones. We were a well oiled donut eating team.! :)

Lila said...

DEFINITELY trying these out this weekend!