Amongst the great pies of the
world, Key Lime holds high honors. Having purchased a bottle of organic
key lime juice for another baking episode, I had far too much left to
just spill it out. My goal, as a true cookie monster, was then to create
a cookie that tastes like Key Lime pie.

This recipe is heavily modified from one I found on a web search. It
yields a dense cookie and, if you use enough lime zest, it will
immediately remind you of the last Key Lime pie you ate.

• 3 teaspoons of fresh lime zest. If you choose to be authentic, you
  will need around 50 Key Limes and a box of bandaids. A standard lime,
  roughly 2" in diameter, will yield 1 teaspoon of dark green zest. You
  can get more out of it, but you really just want the dark green surface.
  Prepare the zest first; it takes a bit longer if you do it right and
  you're going to need it for the next step.
• Cream a stick of softened butter with 1-1/2 cups of white
  sugar. I use organic cane sugar. When it's good and creamy, add in the
  lime zest, 2 eggs, and 1/4 cup of Key Lime juice. It's not that hard to
  find in Florida, but give it a shot. High end grocers should have it in
  stock, your local supermarket probably won't so if you have to use
  commercial lime juice, go ahead.
• Add 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder.
• Add 3 cups of all-purpose flour and mix well.
• Put the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
  Don't skimp here! Two hours is even better; it has to setup otherwise
  you will get runny cookies and they will stick to your hands as you roll
  them into balls.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Roll the dough into 1" diameter balls and give them space to spread on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
• Bake until the bottom edge starts to turn golden brown. The
  original recipe said 10 to 12 minutes. These take around 20 minutes. Be
  patient, they have to get brown edges or they are not done and you will
  leave the guts of the cookie behind on the parchment paper.
• Yields 3 dozen cookies