These cookies are just a tiny bit sweet with a little tang from lemon/lime juice and refreshing citrus scent from both lemon and lime zest. It's also have a kick from extra salt sprinkled on top to balance out all the flavors. They are possibly the most perfect cookies ever. Salt part came as a happy accident. I forgot to add salt in the dough one time so just sprinkled it on top of the cut cookies. It turned out way better than the original. Somehow, the salt brought out more of the citrus and buttery goodness in them.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks chilled butter
- Zest from 1 lemon and 2 limes
- Juice from the lemon and limes (not more than 1 tablespoon)
- Extra sea salt for sprinkle and extra flour for rolling out the cookies
Directions
- With a food processor, pulse flour, sugar and salt together.
- Cut butter into cubes and add to the mixture. Add zest and juice. Pulse until butter is cut into the dough and the mixture is crumbly.
- Gather into 2 balls. Flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more until the dough is hard enough to roll out and cut without sticking. I usually do this the night before.
- If rolling and cutting out cookies seems like too much work, just roll the dough into logs about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap and refrigerate.
- Adjust oven racks to the upper third and lower third. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough to about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick and cut out with cookie cutter. Or if using the log method, use a sharp knife to cut the dough out into 1/4 inch thick. Arrange in prepared cookie sheets. These cookies don't expand much so just give them maybe 1/2 inch space between each other.
- Sprinkle with extra sea salt.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Rotate and switch sheet position half way through.
- Let cool in the baking sheets for a minute then transfer to cooling racks. Let cool completely before storing or serving. The cookies develop more flavor and better texture when they are cold. They stay for about 1 to 2 weeks in cookie jars (not air-tight) but I assure you they definitely won't last that long.
Note: If you want light color and good looking cookies with smooth surface and perfect cut-out shape, bake longer in lower temperature (say 300 degrees for 30 minutes.) But if you don't care about how they look, you just want to eat them, bake them at 350 for 15 to 18 minutes. 325 degrees is the middle ground. You get reasonably good looking cookies in reasonably short baking time. I personally like crisp and dry cookies fast and prefer the higher temperature.
