Thursday, June 30, 2011

A Tropical Party In Your Mouth

Chewy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies. Let that sink in for a minute. Sugar cookies that are crisp on the edges, yet soft and chewy in the middle, that have shredded coconut and zesty lime in them. Yes please! As my friend said, these were a tropical party in her mouth. I've wanted to make coconut lime cookies for awhile now. Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod shared them on her blog last year and I was set to make them until I saw a different recipe on Foodbuzz shared by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. Tracey made both versions and said these were the best she had tasted. Well that solves that problem!

I made these a couple weeks ago and I was intrigued by them because they have a couple ingredients that set them apart from other sugar cookies. Firstly, there's cream cheese in them that contributes to their softness. And there's a combination of melted butter and vegetable (or canola) oil in these that helps with the ever slight crispness on the edges and the chewiness in the center of the cookie. Finely chopped shredded coconut also plays a large part of the texture here as well. The taste of the coconut was really subtle but it was the lime zest that was the star. Because of the softened cream cheese, the melted butter and the oil, the cookie dough was really soft, so handle these as little as possible and work quickly.

I have to tell you a funny story about these cookies though. I shared a few with a couple different friends as well as my mother. My friends ate theirs slowly, savored them and shared only with a select (lucky) few, declared them fantastic, then regretted sharing them because they were gone so quickly. My mom opened up her plastic baggie of cookies, inspected them and asked if I had dropped them on the ground before giving them to her. She saw flecks of lime zest in the cookies and thought it was grass! ha ha! Don't really know if that was a compliment or not, but as least our grass is green and not brown :-)

Chewy Coconut-Lime Sugar Cookies from Cook's Illustrated via Tracey's Culinary Adventures

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  • 2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 oz.) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz.) sugar, plus 1/3 cup for rolling
  • 2 oz. cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
  • 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, chopped fine
  • 1 teaspoon lime zest
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and still warm
  • 1/3 cup vegetable (or canola) oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, coconut, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar, the lime zest, and cream cheese in a large bowl (no need to stir them together yet). Put the remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a pie plate and set aside. Pour the warm butter over the cream cheese mixture and whisk to combine - the mixture won't be completely smooth yet, that's fine. Whisk in the oil then the egg, milk and lime juice. Mix until smooth. Use a rubber spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet, until a soft dough comes together.

Portion the dough onto the prepared baking sheets with a cookie scoop, using about 2 tablespoons for each cookie. Working quickly (if you handle the dough too much you're more likely to wind up with flat cookies), roll the dough into a ball with your hands then roll in the sugar set aside in the pie plate previously. Repeat until you've used all of the dough, placing 9 cookies on each baking sheet. Use the bottom of a glass to flatten the dough balls into discs that are about 2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with the remaining sugar in the pie plate, using about 2 teaspoons per sheet of cookies.

Bake the cookies, 1 tray at a time, for about 11-13 minutes, or until the edges are set and beginning to brown. The tops will be puffy and slightly cracked. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes then transfer them to the rack to cool completely.

Makes 24-28 cookies.

I had my cookies with a refreshing limeade. Pour chilled Sprite into a glass filled with ice. Squeeze fresh lime into Sprite and stir. Garnish with a girly umbrella straw.

For a cherry limeade- Make drink as above, add marachino cherry syrup (from the jar) as well as a few whole cherries. Enjoy!

38 comments:

becki @Becki's Whole life said...

I'm so glad you posted these. I made them for a party last year and I kind of forgot about them, which is strange because they were AWESOME!! People raved...love the lime flavor - I agree, that was the standout.

Erin said...

These sound wonderful! I saw them when Tracey did them, and fell in love then. I am in love all over again! I really am going to hav eto make them soon!

Unknown said...

I saw these on Tracy's Culinary Adventures and these cookies still look fantasic! Saddly, the weather is acting up here and I don't think tropical cookies would suit, but they still look really nice.

Julie said...

My favorite parties are the kind that are in my mouth :D Sounds amazing!!

Monica H said...

Julie- ha ha! You're so funny!

~Monica

jess☆ said...

Great idea with the combination of butter and oil - these look so soft centred and yummy!

Kathleen said...

I made these and they are to die for delish!!!

Anonymous said...

What a yummy looking cookie! Great recipe!

Katie said...

These look wonderful and so zesty. I love how refreshing lime is, I really don't use it enough

Debbie said...

Oh this sounds like such a great cookie. I love the combination of lime and coconut. For whatever reason I love eating something with lemon or lime when I have coffee....call me weird!!!!

Amber said...

These sound amazing! Perfect summer cookie, they are going straight to the top of my 'to bake' list!

Unknown said...

I can definitely attest to the fact that these are amazing and you will regret sharing them!!!

Hennifer said...

oh man! I so love citrus, I will have to put these on my list for next potluck or whatnot. I couldn't make them for myself or I'd be in TROUBLE lol

KitchenTherapy said...

oh, i might give these a go, just gong to adapt it so theres no creme cheese. love lime

jastembo said...

those cookies look wonderful.
what do you think about putting them into the fridge for a bit before shaping. would that help w/ the "softness" issue? or would it change the texture of the final cookie?

oneordinaryday said...

Hmmm. Ya had to go and throw in coconut, now I just don't know if I'm on board or not. I will take the girly drink while I'm deciding though.

Kristi said...

I think I NEED to make these soon!

Donna-FFW said...

My hubby would love these, he is a lime fan. The limeade sounds refreshing.. I'd add some booze:)

Kim said...

I'll definitly try these, they look awesome!

Kerstin said...

These do sound fantastic! I like the cream cheese in them and the crispy/chewy combo sounds awesome.

Donna said...

Oh GoodNESS! I'm Loving this recipe and will Definately be trying it!
Happy weekend to you!

Christina @ ovenadventures said...

I am so excited!!! 1 - to make these cookies and 2 because I found your blog. I am already mentally bookmarking a million recipes from here.

tamilyn said...

I'd be all over that limeade!

Twila said...

These sound wonderful. I'm not sure if my family would like them, but I know I would, and I think my son-in-law would too. The only other thing I might try is to dip half the cookie in chocolate. I think that would make them absolutely delicious!

Tatiyana said...

I made these on Monday night to send to my boyfriend's mom for her birthday. I snuck one before sending them off and thankfully, hid 3 more in the kitchen! They were so yummy!

Heather said...

These look like heaven! I have been on a lime kick lately and these are just the thing I need! I love your blog. You are an amazing cook! http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com

Stefanie said...

Yummy, the cookies look so good! I'm not a fan of coconut, but I love the idea of citrus in the cookies, and cream cheese is always a welcome addition when I cook :)

AllThingsYummy said...

I made these over the weekend. Delicious. Thought I'd share some link love with you. http://allthingsyummyforfoodies.blogspot.com/2011/08/lime-coconut-cookies.html

Gabriëlla said...

Wow, this recipe contains exactly the flavours that I love. Coconut and lime. I think I will add some mint to make them even beter.

Here in Holland it's really autumm. Rainy, cold, windy. With these cookies I will have a instant summer feeling I guess.

Thanks for sharing this recipe!

Anonymous said...

I just made two batches of these and they turned out great. I had to bake mine for 15 minutes.

Anonymous said...

At least our grass is green not brown made me laugh SO hard!! : )

Splinters and Threads said...

These look and sound so awesome however, we have some in our family that while they love the flavor of coconut, cannot handle the texture of it at all. What would be a good substitute that I could still achieve the same flavor?

Unknown said...

Help! I just mixed these up and they are soooooo runny! I could never roll into balls...
I added a bit of flour and stuck it in the fridge to cool down. Here's hoping they firm up and are not horrible!!

Monica H said...

I'm not sure why they're runny. Did you double check the ingredients and the amounts? The dough is a really soft one but they shouldn't be runny or liquidy. If the measurements are correct maybe chilling the dough will help. I'm sorry you're having issues with this recipe. Let me know how they then out for you.

Monica

Anonymous said...

These are delicious! Thanks for the recipe. I misread the size so my first tray of cookies were tremendous and already in the oven when I realized. Oh well they were yummy anyway!

Anonymous said...

Mine were runny too. I added some flour and cooled them in the fridge and that seemed to help. Next time Im only going to soften the butter instead of melting it.

Anonymous said...

I made these for the county fair...and won the blue ribbon!

Unknown said...

I love these cookies...but I also added ginger to the batter! Adds a a nice zip but ppl can't figure out just what the zip is!

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