Key Lime Cookies

If you like key lime pie, you’ll love this key lime cookie recipe. It’s a basic butter cookie with a tender crumb but with the added tang of lime in both the cookie and the glaze.

They’re delicate, not too sweet and they come together quickly. Better yet, because they keep well at room temperature or in the freezer, you can keep them on hand for whenever a craving strikes.

Key Lime Cookie Ingredients

Laura Scherb for Taste of Home

• Butter: Although you can use other fats to make cookies—margarine and shortening are both common options, and chicken fat (!) was an old-school farmhouse staple—butter’s rich flavor and mouthfeel make it the go-to option.
• Confectioners’ sugar: Confectioners’ sugar gives cookies an extra-fine texture when used in place of regular granulated sugar. It also sweetens and thickens the tangy lime glaze that makes the cookies special.
• Lime zest: Fresh lime zest gives the cookies a fresh lime flavor and it also appears in the intensely lime-flavored glaze.
• Vanilla: Vanilla is such a fundamental flavor in baking that we notice when it’s left out. Here it plays a supporting role behind the lime.
• Flour: All-purpose flour is the main ingredient in most cookies, including these, giving them structure and crispness.
• Cornstarch: Adding cornstarch to all-purpose flour makes it similar to pastry flour by lowering the amount of gluten-forming protein in the dry ingredients. It helps give the cookies a distinctively tender crumb.
• Sugar: The granulated sugar in this recipe is a bit player, used to keep the cookie dough from sticking to the bottom of the glass tumbler you’ll use to flatten the cookies.
• Lime juice: Ideally you’d include key lime juice in these cookies, because it’s especially tart and aromatic, but if regular lime juice is all you’ve got the cookies will still taste fine.
• Green decorating gel: This is optional, but you can use it to decorate the finished cookies if you wish.

Directions

Step 1: Make the cookie dough

Laura Scherb for Taste of Home

Preheat your oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and confectioner’s sugar until it’s light and fluffy, then beat in the lime zest and vanilla. In a second bowl thoroughly whisk together the flour and cornstarch, then gradually beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.

Step 2: Bake the cookies

Laura Scherb for Taste of Home

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, and place them 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and use it to flatten the balls to an even ¼-inch thickness, dipping the glass in sugar again as needed to keep it from sticking. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the bottoms are light brown. Remove the cookies from the pan to a wire rack, and allow them to cool completely.

Step 3: Glaze the cookies

Laura Scherb for Taste of Home

In a small bowl, mix the confectioner’s sugar with the lime juice and zest to make a smooth glaze. Brush it over the cookies, then let them stand until the glaze has set. If you wish, you can decorate the cookies with green decorating gel just before serving them.

Laura Scherb for Taste of Home

Key Lime Cookie Recipe Variations

• Swap the lime for lemon: Replacing the lime juice and zest with lemon juice and zest is a quick and easy alternative, if you like the basic cookie but want to change things up a little. If you use the decorating gel, switch from green to yellow.
• Make orange cookies instead: This is another easy option, though orange juice is less intense. Go ahead and use the orange zest, but instead of plain orange juice use the condensed frozen kind (let it thaw first). Alternatively, use three teaspoons of orange juice and one of lemon, which gives you the orange flavor but gains the assertive tanginess the cookies need from the addition of lemon.
• Turn them into sandwich cookies: Spread half of the cookies with lime curd (use your favorite lemon curd recipe, and substitute lime juice and zest), and then top them with the rest of the cookies, to double down on lime goodness. Any good buttercream recipe with a bit of lime juice and zest added also works as a filling.

How to Store Key Lime Cookies

If you expect to eat the cookies while they’re fresh-baked (it’s hard not to) they’ll last a couple of days in an old-school cookie jar. They’ll keep better in a cookie tin or food storage container with a tight-fitting lid that keeps the air out. Put a sheet of wax paper or parchment between each layer of cookies so you won’t mar the glaze or have them stick together.

How long will the key lime cookies last?

Cookies in general are at their best within the first three days if they’re stored properly in an airtight container. Shortbread butter cookies such as this key lime cookie recipe are more durable because they don’t contain eggs, and will stay fresh for up to two weeks.

Can I freeze this key lime cookie recipe?

Yes, they freeze well at several stages. You can mix up the dough, press it into a disc, and freeze it in an airtight freezer bag for later baking. You can also make and flatten the cookies, freeze them on a sheet, and then bag them or move them to a freezer-safe container. That way you can bake as few as one or two when the mood strikes. You can also freeze the finished cookies, though it’s best to leave them unglazed until they’re thawed or the glaze will attract condensation as it thaws and become sticky.

Key Lime Cookies Recipe Tips

Laura Scherb for Taste of Home

Can I use a different kind of icing?

The simple glaze using confectioner’s sugar is perfectly serviceable, but feel free to use whichever icing recipe you’re comfortable with and jazz it up with lime juice and zest. Occasionally you might want something that veers into pure self-indulgence: Adding lime zest and juice to cream cheese frosting or a rich French buttercream will definitely scratch the itch when those days roll around.

Can I just use cake or pastry flour instead of mixing all-purpose with cornstarch?

Yes, absolutely. The flour and cornstarch here add up to 2 cups, and you can use 2 cups of cake or pastry flour instead if you keep those in your pantry. They aren’t always interchangeable with all-purpose flour at a 1:1 ratio, but in a recipe such as this, the difference between the types of flour won’t be significant.

Can I just roll and cut the dough instead of making balls and flattening them?

This is a soft and delicate dough, so you’ll find that trying to roll it is more effort than it’s worth. It will stick to your work surface and rolling pin, and dusting those with flour to keep the dough from sticking will make the cookies tough. If you want to make your cookies quickly and efficiently, do what the professionals do: use a scoop called a “disher.” You’ve probably seen them used for ice cream; they’re the kind with a thumb lever or a squeeze handle that ejects the food from the scoop. They come in a range of sizes, and a #100 disher is just over an inch in diameter. Using one of those to make the balls of cookie dough is faster and more consistent than doing it with a spoon from your drawer.