Lime Coconut Sugar Cookies

I love treats. I do not claim this to be a healthful post, the cookies are sinfully delicious emphasis on the sin. Butter, sugar, coconut- they marry into a melt in your mouth cookie and the addition of lime zest and lime juice drive them over the top into magical territory. For years when I lived down in Boston one of my favorite treats was Dancing Deer Lime cookies. I had no self control. They came in 6 packs and they'd be gone in two days. These cookies remind me of them a little.

Lime Coconut Sugar Cookies (2.09/batch)
(makes 3 dozen)

1 stick of butter, softened a bit (1/2 cup) (2.99 for 4 sticks) .75
1 cup of sugar (3.99 for a 5 lb bag- 11 1/4 cups/bag) .35
1 egg (2.95/18 pack= .16/egg) .16
1 lime- you will use all the zest and all the juice .33
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt (reduce to 1/4 tsp if using table salt)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour (I buy 25lbs at a time for 11.99- it breaks down to 13 cents/cup) .20
1/2 cup coconut (14 oz bag is 2.69= .19/oz) .30

1. Preheat oven to 350. Put the butter in the mixer (if you're using one). If the butter isn't softened make sure you lock the top of the mixer otherwise it will "bounce" around as it mixes the cold butter. While the butter is creaming zest the lime and juice it.

I put the zest & juice in the same bowl since they're going to the same place.

2. Add 1 cup of sugar and beat until fluffy. 

Fluffy creamed butter and sugar.

Add the egg, lime juice & zest. Whip it until well mixed, then scrape the sides of the bowl to grab any missed bits and push them into the batter.

My father-in-law got me this cool finger scraper spatula thingie.

Start whipping the batter again and it will get to look like this:

3. Now it's time to add the dry ingredients. I add the baking powder, baking soda & salt first and mix it a bit to make sure they blend in properly with no clumps. Then the flour, and the coconut is added last. 

4. In a little bowl put a few tablespoons of sugar- in my experience it takes about a TBS per dozen. You want to use a spoon to scoop little pats of dough. Then gently roll them into a ball shape- it doesn't have to be perfect and spin them around in the bowl of sugar to coat. They will cook 1 dozen at a time on a sprayed cookie sheet. 

Make sure to keep the scoops small. They expand a bit when cooked.

Roll in sugar.

Space out on cookie sheet- I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't have parchment paper to cover my loved cookie sheet. 

The cookies will cook at 350 for 9 minutes. You can put the dough in the fridge between batches so that it doesn't get too soft but I do not recommend refrigerating the dough for any longer than 10 minutes. Because the dough is butter-heavy refrigerating for too long makes the cookies "melt" when they're cooking in the oven. When the cookies come out let them sit on the pan for a minute. Make sure when removing them from the sheet that you slide the spatula all the way underneath. If you press too high up on the side they can crumble. After removing them from the pan let them cool on a cookie rack. 

Enjoy! One of the things I love about these cookies is even though they aren't "healthy" they're perfect because I only want one or two with a cup of tea, whereas some other cookies I want to eat a dozen in a sitting.