…And A Stick of Buttah

As usual, I had far too many cookies left over from the Craft Party. I brought a bag of pumpkin cookies and lime shortbread in for The Boys at work. It’s been a pretty stressful few days as we’ve switched to a new Internet Service Provider and fired up a new Internet Firewall server. The last time the Evil PXE upgraded our firewall it took him five hours. And that included building the server from scratch, installing all the updates, and configuring the firewall settings.

Two days later, and a week or two of reading up on the process, we had our firewall and a dozen websites functional again. The Evil PXE, in short, was fried.

At 4:15, he strolled by my desk, opened up the snack cupboard, grabbed two bags of Doritos, and announced, “It’s BF 2:30!”—our phrase for playing a round of Battlefield 2.

We laughed and watched him wearily sit down at his desk to fire up the game. Our newest staffer reached for a cookie in the ziplock baggie closest to him. Evil PXE comically swatted at his hand and then hugged the cookies and his Doritos tightly to his chest. “Hey! That’s my lunch!” I stared at him blankly for a moment until he yelled his manic/nervous, “What? What?!”

I smirked. “I’m just watching how many of those shortbread cookies you’ve eaten today. You’ve probably eaten a whole stick of butter by now…”

He hung his head. “Don’t tell me that…”

Lime Shortbread Cookies

2 c. unsalted butter (4 sticks)
1 c. powdered sugar
4-6 limes, zested *
1 t. vanilla
4 c. flour

Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
¼ c. lime juice, freshly squeezed **

Cream the butter, powdered sugar and zest until well combined (use a stand mixer if you have one). Add vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Slowly add the flour until well combined.

Lay out some wax paper and squeeze/roll dough out into two equal logs, about 2 inches in diameter and 11 inches long. Wrap the dough with the wax paper and chill until hardened, about one hour.

Slice the cookies from the log about ¼ to 1/3 of an inch thick. Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Set in a 325 degree oven. Bake until cookies are lightly browned on the edges, about 20-25 minutes. Don’t over bake!

Set the cookies on a rack to cool. Mix the powdered sugar and lime juice together in a small bowl and spoon over the tops of the cookies.

* I zested six limes and one thumb. Just kidding...

** I used closer to ½ c. of lime juice for the frosting. The icing was too thick with just ¼ c. of juice.

This recipe came from another blogger and can be seen in its original context here.