Friday, July 17, 2015

Cabo Cookies

These cookies are perfect as desert after a good street taco. They taste like summer in the sun and feet in the sand. They're light and chewy, with just the right mix of sweet and tart. They're a good break from the basic's, nice and simple yet, fancy enough to serve at a gathering.

Ingredients ~

1 cup margarin (I'm on a lowering cholesterol kick right now)
1/2 cup coconut butter, soften but not melted (obviously I'm not on that big of a kick)
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
zest of 3 medium to small limes, finely minced (key limes are too small)
juice of 3 medium to small limes (equals about 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, finely chopped in a food processor (it's the normal kind from the normal store, nothing fancy)
5 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 batch of Creamy Lime Frosting (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350, line baking sheet with parchment paper, a baking liner or lightly spray with vegetable oil cooking spray.
Using the cookie paddles and large bowl of mixer, combine margarin, coconut butter, shortening, and sugar till light a fluffy; add eggs and vanilla, and mix well; add lime zest, lime juice and, minced coconut. Combined flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; scrapping the sides of the bowl as you mix. Dough should be light but easy to spoon out. 

The coconut absorbs a bit of the lime juice and is yummy, go ahead and sneak a taste. Do you taste the hint of lime in each little bite of coconut? Now have some self-control and bake up the rest of the dough, you've got to have something to put the wonderful frosting on.

Using a cookie scoop, place balls of dough about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. If you don't have a cookie scoop a spoon works just fine. My cookie scoop is a #40 which is equal to about 1 1/2 Tbls. The number of cookies you make will depend on the size of your scoop, but you knew that already. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on your oven. Once baked remove from oven and leave on baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a opened up brown paper bag or paper towels to cool. Don't use a cooling rack, these are too delicate of cookies. Once completely cool top with Creamy Lime Frosting, recipe below.

Creamy Lime Frosting

Ingredients ~
1/4 cup soften butter
2 tablespoons coconut butter, soften not melted
1 lb powered sugar, sifted
zest and juice of 1 lime
1/8 teaspoon of salt (a good pinch)
about 3 tablespoons of whipping cream ( the amount of cream you use will depend on the amount of juice from your lime

Mix together butter and coconut butter; add powdered sugar, lime zest and juice; scraping bowl as you mix. Add salt and whipping cream to sugar mixture. Continue mixing until frosting is well combine and smooth.  Enjoy on Cabo Cookies or a moist lime cupcake.