Key Lime

Before I get too far along in this recipe blog, I feel I must issue two disclaimers. 1) I am not a "trained" cook. The only cooking class I have ever taken was ninth grade Home Economics 101 which was mandatory for all female students...back in the day. I am certainly NOT the best baker in the world. In fact, I recall as a young bride my first (and only) attempt to bake biscuits for my husband. He observed, in the kindest and gentlest manner, that my biscuits had the same texture and consistency of the Milk Bone dog treats we fed our dog. After choking down one biscuit, he gleefully exclaimed that all plaque and tartar build-up had been effectively removed from his teeth. We gave the remaining biscuits to our dog, which she gnawed on contentedly for days, before burying them under the azaleas. There are certain food items with which I enjoy experimenting and baking....cookies happen to be one of those items. The recipes I am sharing are those which I believe to be unique; and have produced surprisingly good results. Disclaimer 2) In case you haven't noticed, I am not a very good photographer. Please do not let the quality of my photos deter you from trying my cookie recipes! I'm using my OLD digital camera; and have no clue how to use photo shop to edit the photos. So, what you see is my lame attempt to capture an image in an appetizing manner with minimal editing. Sometimes, the image does not reflect the quality of the product, but gives an indication of how the cookie looked when I baked it.

Having said that...although the photos are bad, the cookies are great! The Key Lime cookie recipe I am sharing was really fun to develop. It was truly a "white lab coat experiment" as I combined ingredients, having no clue how it was going to turn out. This was my first attempt at a "thumbprint" style cookie using the instant pudding recipe. The filling was improvised from a favorite Key Lime Pie recipe I've baked for years. Adding gelatin to a cookie recipe was a daring stretch of the imagination. The end result is an amazingly moist, sweet-tart cookie with a creamy, lip-puckering key lime filling. After the abysmal, cold, snowy winter we've had here in Virginia, I felt it was time to send our taste buds to the Keys for a taste of sunshine and warm weather.

If you bake this cookie, please take a photo! I'd love to post it to replace mine!


Key Lime Cookie

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lb butter, at room temperature
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 pkg. (3.4 oz) Jello? cheesecake flavor instant pudding
1 pkg (3 oz) Jello? lime flavored gelatin
2 (large) eggs
1 tsp key lime extract*
2-3 drops green food coloring (optional)

Filling:
1/3 C sweetened condensed milk
1/3 C key lime juice**


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and key lime juice. Set aside.

Sift together first 3 ingredients into a large bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add instant pudding, then gelatin, mixing well. Add eggs and key lime extract, mixing until well blended. Add 2-3 drops of green food coloring, if desired. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Slowly add flour, until all is well blended.

Using a standard (2 oz) ice cream scoop, drop cookie dough on to an un-greased cookie sheet. (or use rounded tablespoons if you prefer.) Make indention in the center of each cookie with your thumb (I use the tip of my ice cream scoop handle...it makes a nice circular indention.) Fill the center of each cookie with a teaspoon of key lime filling mixture.

For 2 oz cookie, bake at 350 degrees for 16 minutes. For rounded tablespoon cookies, bake for 12-13 minutes. After one minute, transfer from pan to wire rack to cool.

*key lime extract, and
** key lime juice can be purchased at the amazon.com link on my blog.

Yield: 15 BIG, 2 oz cookies. 30 rounded tablespoon size cookies.