A little about my family… my mom grew up with 9 siblings which means that, although I rarely get to see them because most live far away, I have aunts, uncles, and cousins aplenty! With that said though, there’s one particular family member who stands out from them all and that is my aunt Teresa!
It’s no secret that she’s my favorite and for good reason -she’s like a 2nd mom to me. We’re pen pals (yeah, people still do that), we Skype or text as frequently as we can, and whenever she’s in town we always laugh our butts off. So when it came around to figuring out what to get her for Christmas I couldn’t think of anything better than a recipe made in her honor. The gift of food is, in my opinion, one hell of a gift because food is love, food is time, and food is comfort. But shhh… this is our little secret for now, okay? Why? Because, as of this very moment, I haven’t had a chance to bake up another batch to send to her yet -Christmas came up on me so fast, y’all. She’ll get her gift soon enough though, I promise, but until then hush-hush!
Okay, so what recipe did I create to honor my aunt Teresa? Lime cookies! She absolutely loves anything lime and a cookie is easy enough to send in the mail versus say a cake or something like that. These cookies are the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness -they don’t shy away from the lime flavor! They’re a little crisp on the outside, tender and chewy on the inside, and have a crunch factor to them thanks to the addition of macadamia nuts. Refreshing and delicious, I’m sure they could be classified as a cure for the winter doldrums, plus they’re easy to make!
It all gets started with some wet ingredients! In a large bowl, 2 kinds of sugar along with some “butter,” lime juice, lime extract, and Ener-G get combined until smooth. The dry ingredients then get added, including of course some flour and lime zest, and then the whole thing gets stirred again to combine.
Now it’s time to add in those glorious macadamia nuts. My grocery store only had whole macadamia nuts so I had to do a little chopping but, if you can find the chopped ones, get those and yo’self save some time. Obviously, if you aren’t a fan of this particular nut, or nuts in general, you could omit these but I personally think the cookie is better with them -cookies need varying textures generally to be good. If you wanted to you could also tweak this recipe a bit to include say some vegan white chocolate chips, or some coconut, if you wanted to go and get really crazy with it!
Once the nuts have been thoroughly folded into the dough, the next step is to scoop out your cookies onto a large sheet pan that you’ve lined with parchment paper. I like to use a cookie scoop to make sure all of my cookies are the same size. (For these I used a 1.5″ cookie scoop which yielded me 31 cookies!) The dough gets baked off in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms are just ever so slightly starting to brown.
When the cookies are done, let them rest for 2-3 minutes on the pan until they have firmed up just enough that they can be transferred with ease to a cooling rack where they can cool down the rest of the way.
Teresa's Vegan Lime Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 stick of vegan “butter,” softened
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (2 large limes should be able to provide this but be sure to zest the limes before you juice them because we will need their zest too!)
- 2 tablespoons lime extract
- Ener-G Egg Replacer for 1 egg (follow instructions on box)
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- Zest from 2 large limes
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper. Set pan aside for a moment. In a large bowl, combine the two sugars with the softened “butter,” lime juice, lime extract, and Ener-G. Stir or whisk until smooth. When smooth, add in the flour, lime zest, baking soda, and salt. Stir just until everything is combined then fold in the chopped macadamia nuts.
- Using a 1.5″ cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and place it onto the pan you prepared a moment ago leaving about 2-3 inches between each ball of cookie dough. Transfer the pan to your preheated 350 degree oven and bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms are just ever so slightly starting to brown.
- When the cookies are done, let them rest for 2-3 minutes on the pan to firm up enough to allow you to transfer them with ease to a cooling rack where they can cool down the rest of the way. Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Compassion is the Secret Ingredient 