Wednesday, December 2, 2009

12 Days of Cookies - Day 2 - Lime Snowballs





Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...  Unfortunately, powdered sugar snow is as close as I'm going to get here in central Texas.  It's supposed to get into the 30s tonight (Tuesday) and almost down to freezing tomorrow night (Wednesday), but snow is a rarity.  While we've had a couple of ice storms, the last time we had appreciable snowfall was in early 2004.  I actually remember it quite well--it was a Saturday, Valentine's Day, and Brianna was a little over a year old...



Unfortunately, she was too little to remember it.  But I can show her the photographic evidence.  Gillian, on the other hand, hasn't seen real snow at all.  Who knows, maybe this winter...

So not much chance of snow, but I do have these yummy Lime Snowballs.  They're my second pick for the 12 Days of Cookies.  In appearance they remind me of a family favorite from this time of year.  We call them nut balls, but most people know them as Mexican wedding cookies or Russian tea cakes.  They're my dad's favorite--we'd have to hide them from him so he wouldn't eat them all too quickly.  The favorite hiding place was to stick the cookie tins in the dryer (when it was not in use).  He never thought to look in there.  =)  These cookies have the same powdered sugar exterior, but no nuts.  And they're flavored with a triple dose of lime--zest, juice and oil.



I had to go looking for the lime oil (found this nifty variety pack at Sur la Table), but the rest of the ingredient list is straightforward.  Besides the three lime components, there's only flour, cornstarch, unsalted butter and powdered sugar.  I thought it was a bit odd that there was no salt in the recipe, so I added about 1/4 teaspoon.  Once the dough was mixed, I used my #70 disher to scoop out balls of it and put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  (That scoop was just about right--I ended up with 35 cookies.)  I baked them for 22 minutes, at which point they were browning around the edges.  I let the cookies cool on the pan for a couple minutes, then transferred them to a rack.  The recipe says to just sift powdered sugar over them, but I didn't quite follow those directions.  While the cookies were still warm, I rolled them (gently) in powdered sugar so they were thoroughly coated.  Then once I had coated them all, I dusted powdered sugar over them as well.



The verdict?  Yeah, there's no doubt there's lime in these. =)  I like them a lot.  So does Brianna--yay, another hit!  They have a great buttery, melt in your mouth texture.  I took a bunch to the daycare Tuesday morning so I wouldn't eat them all myself.  I dropped them off at the front office, then took Gillian to her classroom.  By the time I returned to the front of the building, a couple of the teachers had already sampled them and decided they were wonderful.  By the time this 12 days is over, they're either going to love me or hate me.  =)  Might have to find some other places to share cookies.  I'll definitely be making these again, and hey, I can make lemon and orange ones, too, since I have those oils as well.

If you'd like to make a batch for yourself, you can find the recipe here.



And be sure to check out the other bakers participating in the 12 Days of Cookies to see what they've baked up for today!






Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
(honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
Tiffany of The Nesting Project







16 comments:

  1. Oh YUM! I love lime - these sound wonderful. Might have to add them to the list this year...

    Oh - and I love the picture of you and Brianna with the snow! Want some? I could ship you some when we start getting it here...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those looks so nice and just like a snowy day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. In San Diego, we're lucky to get rain, let alone snow. Definitely weather challenged! This is one of my favorite cookies period. There's just something about the combination of all that powdered sugar and lime in one bite. At our house, the dryer would most likely end up on w/the cookies in it. :/

    ReplyDelete
  4. They look so festive and snowy... Great pictures...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't be so quick to jump to "no snow" conclusions. :) I'm hoping that the weather forecast might be correct for once & we'll see snow here in ATX on FRIDAY!!

    This native wisconsinite sure is hoping for the white stuff :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yummm. I have been eyeballing these. I just need the lime oil.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wanted to try these, but they had been gobbled by the time I saw the container.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That is a great idea to use lime in baking! I have never done that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yum! These look and sound terribly dangerous. Just right!

    ReplyDelete
  10. These look wonderful and sound delicious! I really think that citrus is Christmasy, so between the lime and the powdered snow, these are ideal Christmas cookies in my book! I LOVE the picture of you and your little snow bunny! We don't get much snow here either, which is 99% good, but sometimes I wish the kids could grow up knowing the joy of a snow day!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Those sound amazing Di! I love citrus but I think I'm more of a lemon person so I think I'll try the lemon version :)

    I don't know what I'd do without snow. I remember being in Nashville for school and missing the snow tremendously. Maybe you'll need to take a trip up my way to introduce G to snow!

    ReplyDelete
  12. We don't get much snow down here, either, so we deliberately try schedule vacay time in the middle of winter on the off chance of running into some. :-) I really want to make these, but haven't been able to locate lime oil (the closest Sur Le Table is in the next county), but I may make a trip to W-S this weekend, just in case. They look divine!

    ReplyDelete
  13. So glad you made these because they are on my list as well and I wasn't quite sure about all the lime flavoring.

    I'm going to go to Sur La Table today and pick up that oil packet and of course spend an hour or so looking at everything else!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Cute pictures! I got my oil at King Arthur Flour, though the mail ~ nice and convenient (critical in this mad cookie crush!). Yours look delicious, Di!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love the nut version of these cookies and am quite intrigued by the lime ones. Cute post about snow.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This sounds like a delicious version of this cookie. I love the whole lemon-lime-orange flavoring ideas in anything. Thanks for showing the packaging on the oils. I have seen those before at Sur but never ventured forth as wasn't sure what one did with them...now I know! Your cookies look very pretty...and snowy!

    ReplyDelete