Pistachio Lime Cookies

  • Level: Intermediate
  • Yield: 3 dozen (1 1/2-inch) cookies
  • Total: 1 hr 15 min
  • Prep: 30 min
  • Inactive: 30 min
  • Cook: 15 min
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Ingredients

3 cups sugar

1/2 cup lime zest, about 6 to 8 limes

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, chilled

6 ounces shelled pistachios

5 egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon natural almond extract

3/4 cup fresh lime juice

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a food processor work bowl, add sugar and lime zest. Process until sugar and zest are well mixed, about 20 seconds. Scrape into a large mixing bowl. Reserve about 1/2 cup of lime sugar in a separate bowl for later use.
  3. Add flour, baking powder and salt into food processor and pulse briefly to mix. Add cold butter into food processor with flour mixture and 3 ounces of the pistachios. Process with short pulses until mixture resembles cornmeal and no large lumps of butter remain, about 10 seconds. Add remaining pistachios and mix briefly, about 5 seconds. Pour this mixture into the sugar and lime mixture in the large mixing bowl and set aside.
  4. In a medium bowl, mix egg yolks, vanilla extract, almond extract, and lime juice together.
  5. Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, pour in the lime/sugar and flour/butter mixture and stir until combined, about 15 seconds. Then, while the mixer is still running, slowly add egg/lime juice mixture and mix until well combined and dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 15 to 30 seconds.
  6. Scrape the dough into a large bowl and refrigerate until cold, but not solid, about 30 minutes. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Take the dough balls and roll the tops into the reserved lime sugar. Use the bottom of a water glass to press the cookies flat, about 1/4-inch thick. Bake the cookies until slightly browned, about 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper with the cookies from the tray to a cooling rack and cool.

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Kathi A.

Love Rachel but must have done something wrong here after reading all the reviews of others that loved it. I tried doubling the recipe and my food processor wasn’t big enough so then I had to process in batches which was a giant pain and then mixing all that egg mixture in at the end I felt made the cookie way to gummy and pasty and they flattened out and did not look anything like the picture. And the lime flavor, although big in the dough, did not transfer into the final product. I used a little extra lime juice cause I really wanted that flavor so maybe that and not incorporating the egg yolks as I should was my downfall. Not on my Christmas list of cookies. Would have to have bigger equipment to try it again. It’s a lot of butter, sugar and flour and then to use only egg yolks was weird. I thought it would be more like a short bread type cookie and it was not for me. Word of wisdom to myself, don’t double the batch unless you know you’re gonna nail it and love it.

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