Coconut Lime Cookies

Shredded coconut, fresh lime juice and lime zest bring a sunny tropical flavor to these white chip cookies.

This blog is where I share recipes that help me feed my family from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. Typically, I'm trying to find ways to deal with a glut of kohlrabi or turnips, tomatoes or greens. Each December I am voluntarily overwhelmed with oranges because I love my kid and he loves marching band and the band sells Florida citrus as a fundraiser.

And now, limes.

Why am I overwhelmed with limes? In a word-Corona. We hit Costco for a sled hockey team dinner during a tournament and picked up a bag of limes to go with the adult beverages. As we divided up the remnants, I offered to take the excess limes. There I was--overwhelmed with limes and not a beer in sight.

I had 2 sweet ideas for these limes--cookies and cupcakes. Later this summer you'll see my Zucchini Lime cupcakes, but for now, since I think they are seasonal for a Cinco de Mayo dessert, please enjoy these Coconut, Lime & White Chip Cookies.

Assembly line: salt, lime zest, cookie dough, cookie sheet, dog.

Since I had all these limes, I wanted to make a cookie that actually used the juice of a lime in the batter. Easier said than done! I looked on the internet but ended up adapting the recipe on the back of the white chip bag for my first attempt. The flavor was fine--but there were too many chips and the cookie was too flat. I opted to base off of my Sunflower Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookie and use a bit of shortening to make a cakier cookie. I also dropped the amount of chips down and boosted the coconut up. I like the result, so I'm sharing that recipe.

These are not piña colada cookies--there's no rum [why is all the rum gone?]--but the flavors are tropical. The white chips I used were not white chocolate chips. Not entirely sure what flavor "white" is, but they worked well in this cookie. I forgot to take a full on ingredient photo--but I used Nestle White Baking Chips in these cookies.

If you want a coconut lime cookie with actual lime juice and lime zest, here's your recipe!

Note: I make my cookie dough, and my pizza dough, at least a day before I plan to bake it. This offers me 4 benefits. First, I can have several kitchen sprints instead of one long kitchen marathon. (I particularly like to take the butter out to come to room temp while I'm fixing dinner and mix the dough up while dinner's in the oven, then clean the kitchen once). Second, it enables the fat to enrobe the flour in the dough, resulting in a better product. Third, starting with chilled dough keeps the cookies a nice shape. And fourth, if I'm sick of baking I can just pop the dough back in the fridge, or bag it into the freezer, for future use.

Yes, you did see Robert Barker in the photo earlier.

Coconut Lime Cookies 

1 lime (or ¼ cup lime juice and 1 to 2 Tablespoons lime zest)

1 stick (4 ounces) softened butter (I use unsalted)

⅙ cup shortening (I know, it's weird, double the recipe)

½ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2 cups (8½ ounces by weight) unbleached all purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt + more to finish (I use kosher)

1½ cups shredded sweetened coconut

1 cup white morsels

zest from yet another lime (or 1 to 2 Tablespoons more)

See Note above--I start at least a day before. Zest one lime, then juice it. Set aside. In a large bowl (I'm using my stand mixer) cream together the butter, shortening and sugars. Mix in vanilla, egg, lime juice and zest until thoroughly blended. Dump flour, baking powder and baking soda, and salt on to and mix in. Add coconut and white morsels and stir until combined. Place in a covered container in the fridge for overnight up to 3 days.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, cover a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper, and zest another lime. Have an assembly line going as shown above, with a pile of lime zest and a pile of salt. Scoop (Amazon affiliate link to my favorite 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop) dough into balls evenly space about 3 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle balls with lime zest and salt. Bake for 8 to 11 minutes until lightly browned, cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish the job.

Have a cookie.