Key Lime Pie Crinkles

I’m trying to bake with spring and summer flavors, but I tend to edge towards chocolate, spice, apple, and those flavors. I already have some pear cinnamon preserves that I will use for something, but I am going to wait until fall to use that! I figured that lime was a good flavor for this time of year, and I like the idea of making a cookie with the flavors of pie.

Since this is a key lime cookie, I suppose that the intention was to use key lime juice, but key limes can be hard to find. I can buy key lime juice in a bottle, but that didn’t seem right. I got an organic lime at the store and hoped that would be fine. As I halved this recipe, one lime provided plenty of juice and zest. Limes very a lot in size, so look at the needed quantity and make your best guess.

I wasn’t sure if I would use the green food color, but I am glad I did as the cookies weren’t green at all! Even with the food color they didn’t photograph as very green, but they are a little brighter in person. I did more of a half and half for the powdered sugar and graham cracker topping, but the powdered sugar certainly sticks a lot better. These have a good lime flavor, but it isn’t too strong. I like these a lot!

Key Lime Pie Crinkles
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-5 drops green food color, if desired
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light. Scrape down the bowl and stir in the eggs, lime juice, lime zest, and vanilla, beating until combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. If desired, add green food color to enhance the green quality of the dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour. This will help the cookies remain puffy when baked.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll generously in the powdered sugar mixture. Make sure the dough is well covered.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies are lightly golden. The cookies may seem under baked but will set as they cool. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas

Key Lime Thumbprints

I used to really dislike thumbprint cookies, I didn’t like the jelly filling in them. I have since discovered that thumbprint cookies can have any variety of flavors and fillings. I have made a lot of different types of thumbprints since then, and I find a lot of new recipes that I want to try. This recipe is from Peabody, who always comes up with new and fun flavor combinations.

Key lime is a great summery flavor. I like baking with citrus, but I have one friend at work who doesn’t like orange, so I tend to try to avoid orange. Key lime pie is a classic pie, and this cookie encapsulates all the flavors of the pie. The cookies are rolled in graham cracker crumbs, which mimics the pie crust, and the thumbprint filling contains the lime and the creamy topping.

All of the components need time in the refrigerator. I made the filling first and actually had it in the refrigerator for about 6 hours. In Peabody’s photo, she had piped her filling, but my filling was just too soft to pipe. I tried, but that was a big mess. I’m not sure why the filling wasn’t quite right, but it worked out in the end. These cookies have a great key lime flavor, and the only thing that I might change is adding some lime zest to the cookie dough. This recipe makes a fairly small batch, about 2 dozen cookies, but there aren’t as many folks at work so a smaller batch works for me right now!

Key Lime Thumbprints

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

5 ounces Key Lime juice

9 ounces sweetened condensed milk

½ cup butter, room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups flour

1 egg white

1 teaspoon water

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

Make the Key Lime filling: place the cream cheese in a mixer bowl and beat on medium until smooth. Gradually add the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk, while the mixer runs on low. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a separate bowl and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Make the cookies: in a large mixer bowl, add the butter and sugar. Mix on medium until light. Add the egg, vanilla and salt and mix on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour. Do not over mix. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place the egg white and water in a small bowl and whisk together until frothy. Place the graham cracker crumbs in a separate bowl. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in the egg white and then into the graham cracker crumbs. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Make an indentation in the cookies with your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon.

Bake for about 12 minutes, until set. Once you’ve removed the cookies from the oven, reform and enlarge the thumbprints. Allow the cookies to cool completely. Once cool, spoon or pipe the filling into the thumbprints. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas

Lemon Lime Crinkle Cookies

I really like lemon cookies, and when I am thinking of something that is more refreshing, I typically turn to lemon. I sometimes bake lemon cookies in the middle of winter, when it is gloomy outside and spring seems forever away. Now that we are having some nice weather, I think I will be baking more with different fruits, and certainly with lemon.

The original recipe was just a lemon cookie. I went to the store to get the last ingredients I needed, and they didn’t have any lemons. I guess that’s what I get for going to Target, as they have a small produce section. Don’t get me wrong, I love Target, but in this case, it wasn’t the best choice. As it was already getting late, I didn’t have time to go to another store. They did have limes, so I figured that I would make lemon lime cookies, with lemon extract paired with lime juice and zest.

These cookies mix up quickly. The dough is quite sticky, and could probably be refrigerated for about 30 minutes to make it easier to work with. Once the dough balls get into the sugar, that takes care of the stickiness, so it wasn’t too bad. My cookies didn’t really crinkle, but they still look ok. These cookies are crisp around the edges and soft in the middle. I like the different flavor of the lime zest with the lemon, so not being able to find lemons turned out just fine.

Lemon Lime Crinkle Cookies

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

Zest of one lime

1 egg + 1 yolk

1 1/2 tablespoon lime juice

3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

 Yellow food color, if desired

Additional sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and lime zest. Beat on medium until light. Add the egg, egg yolk, lime juice, lemon extract, and vanilla. Stir on medium to combine. If desired, add a few drops of yellow food color to enhance the lemony color of the cookies.

With the mixer running on low, gradually mix in the flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls. Place the additional sugar in a medium bowl and roll the dough balls in the sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until set and barely browned around the edges. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Cooking Classy

Almond Marmalade Slice

We had some sun, but it is fleeting and now it is rainy again. I chose these bars as a way to channel the sunny weather. I’m not sure that worked, but it is nice to bake something springy. These bars originally called for orange marmalade, but just like other interesting baking ingredients, I sometimes pick up interesting jams and jellies. I had a jar of Lemon and Lime marmalade, and this seemed like the perfect recipe for it.

This recipe is labeled as a “slice” which we would call a bar cookie in the States. This is an Australian recipe, which I have found to have excellent bar cookie recipes! The only challenge is that it calls for a 20 by 30 (or 19 by 29) centimeter pan. That isn’t something you can find readily locally, but I do have a tart pan that is the right size. If you don’t have this super special pan, a 9: inch square pan would certainly work just fine.

This recipe called for both plain flour and self-rising flour. In the UK and Australia, self-rising flour is very common. It’s just flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt mixed in. I make my own, so for this recipe I have converted the amounts to the individual ingredients. I wasn’t sure what lemon and lime marmalade would taste like. In the bars it is subtle, sweet, but not bitter. They are ever so slightly reminiscent of lemon bars, but not as soft. They are delicate and buttery.

Almond Marmalade Slice

1 1/2 cups sliced almonds

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar

¾ cup butter, melted

2/3 cup marmalade

Preheat oven to 390 degrees. Line a 20 x 30 centimeter (or a 9” square) pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Place 1 cup of the sliced almonds in the food processor and process until ground. In a large mixer bowl, add the ground almonds, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Add the melted butter and stir on medium until the mixture comes together in large crumbs.

Reserve 1/3 of the crumb mixture; press the remaining dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow the crust to cool slightly, about 20 minutes.

Spread the marmalade over the partially cooled crust. Mix the remaining ½ cup of sliced almonds with the reserved crumb mixture. Sprinkle the almond/crumb mixture on top of the marmalade.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the topping is lightly golden. Cool in the pan before cutting into bars.

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