These citrusy Lime Cookies with a quick lime glaze and a hint of coconut flavoring are a dream! These bakery-style cookies are thick, chewy, and vibrantly flavored.
Check out some of our other favorite citrus-filled desserts next — including this Key Lime Pie or Lemon Cheesecake Cookies.
The Best Lime Cookies Recipe!
I know, I know. The “best”– really? While everyone likes different things in a cookie, we truly think these are the best lime-laced sugar cookies ever!
This Lime Cookies recipe yields ultra-thick, soft, chewy, and downright delicious cookies. They’re citrusy with a hint of coconut and the sweet glaze on top finishes things off perfectly!
Quick Tip
While testing, we made these cookies with actual coconut in the dough, but ended up liking them best with only coconut extract. So, if you aren’t a coconut fan, the flavor is very subtle and if you are really opposed to coconut, the extract can be left out without a problem!
What Can You Do With Plenty Of Limes?
Make these Lime Cookies of course! You’ll need about three large, juicy limes for this recipe. If you’ve got more than that, consider one of these recipes using limes:
- Cilantro-Lime Sauce (this is a favorite recipe on the blog — it goes with so many recipes from these Shrimp Tacos to this Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Recipe.
- Sparkling Raspberry Limeade (this beverage uses an entire cup of lime juice!)
- This Guacamole recipe can be a topping for so many recipes and it uses fresh limes. (Some of our favorite places to add a scoop of guacamole are these Navajo Tacos or this French Bread Taco Pizza.)
What Makes Cookies Soft Or Hard?
Several factors come into play here:
- The actual ingredients used
- The size of the cookie dough balls
- How long the dough is chilled
- The temperature of the oven and how long cookies are baked for.
For soft Lime Cookies, we use a dough with more moisture in it. The size (or mass) of the cookies will also contribute to the soft and chewy texture. Big cookie dough balls make softer and chewier cookies than smaller ones. And the number one way to get soft cookies? Don’t bake them too long!
What Makes Cookies Fluffy?
- Fresh baking agents (check to make sure the baking powder is fresh!)
- Creaming room temperature (not melted) butter with the sugars
- Using room-temperature eggs (Room-temperature eggs trap air and disperse more evenly into the batter.)
- Chilling the dough: The longer the fat (butter) stays solid, the less the cookies will spread and the fluffier they’ll be. Additionally, the sugar has a chance to absorb more liquid and further prevent spreading.
Lime Cookies Ingredients
A few ingredients are worth going into detail:
- Lime zest. Unlike a lot of recipes that use both the zest and juice of limes, we only use the zest here. The zest packs a huge punch of flavor without adding liquid. There is a lot of zest — and it’s all needed here! When zesting the limes, avoid the white pith of the lime — this is bitter. Using a microplane (like this one) zest only the very outside green part of the limes for this recipe.
- Coconut extract. An optional ingredient, but nice flavor add. Coconut extract is a flavor enhancer (just like vanilla extract) that gives these cookies a more nuanced flavor. Coconut extract can usually be found near other baking extracts and spices in the grocery store.
- Good butter. The better the butter, the better the flavor of the dough! We love and use this butter in these Lime Cookies.
Variations
Make lemon-lime cookies instead by replacing the coconut extract with lemon extract! Increase the amount to 2 full teaspoons of pure lemon extract.
How To Make Lime Cookies From Scratch
Our top tips for Lime Cookie success:
- Bake on a Silpat® liner or parchment paper. This helps bake foods evenly without burning and allows the cookies to release from the pan and clean up effortlessly.
Storage
Storing Soft Lime Cookies
Instead of freezing baked cookies, freeze the dough! Drop the cookie dough balls on a large sheet pan and freeze until solid. Once solid, transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to an airtight container or bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
To bake: You can bake these Lime Cookies straight from the freezer. There is no need to thaw, but you may need to add a few extra minutes to the baking time. Bake until the edges are lightly browned, and the center is still soft.
The glaze doesn’t freeze and thaw well, so I recommend making that fresh.
More Dessert Recipes:
- Fruit Dip with only four ingredients
- Orange Julius a dessert-like smoothie
- Blueberry Ice Cream made without refined sugars
- Cheesecake Bars with a hint of lemon
- Strawberry Frozen Yogurt with frozen strawberries
Lime Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 tbsp.) unsalted butter room temperature (do not melt!)
- 1-1/2 cups granulated white sugar
- zest of 3 large limes (Note 1)
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1/2 teaspoons coconut extract, optional (Note 2)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (Note 3)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 cups white all-purpose flour (Note 4)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Glaze
- 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- Teeny pinch of salt
Instructions
- WET INGREDIENTS: Add 1 cup butter to a stand mixer. Add 1½ cups sugar and 3 tbsp lime zest. Beat for 2-3 minutes. Scrape sides, then add 2 eggs, 1½ tsp vanilla, and 1½ tsp coconut extract. Beat until combined.
- DRY INGREDIENTS: Scrape sides, add 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt, and mix. Add 3 cups flour and beat until just combined and no flour streaks remain.
- CHILL: Cover dough and chill for 20 minutes. Line a large plate with parchment paper.
- FORM COOKIE DOUGH BALLS: Portion the dough into ¼ cup (60g) balls. Aim for 16-18 cookies, as this size works best (Note 5). Roll each ball in ½ cup powdered sugar and place on the plate.
- CHILL AGAIN: Return dough balls to fridge for 20 minutes or freezer for 10. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325 degrees F (162 degrees C). Line a large sheet pan with parchment or a Silpat liner.
- BAKE AND COOL: Bake 6 cookies at a time on a prepared pan (they spread). Bake for 10-15 minutes until puffed and no longer gooey on top, with slightly browned edges. Avoid overbaking to retain flavor and texture. Let cookies stand on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Glaze only when fully cooled. Repeat for remaining dough or save for later (see Instruction #8).
- GLAZE: In a medium bowl, whisk 2 tbsp lime juice, 1½ cups powdered sugar, 1 tbsp heavy cream, and a pinch of salt until smooth. Transfer to a zip-top bag, seal, cut the tip, and drizzle over cookies. Optionally, sprinkle with lemon zest. Enjoy at room temperature or chilled.
- STORAGE: Freeze the dough, not the baked cookies! Place dough balls on a sheet pan and freeze until solid. Transfer to an airtight container or bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen, adding a few extra minutes to the baking time until edges are lightly browned and the center is soft. Make the glaze fresh, as it doesn't freeze well.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe works very well. I preferred it without the icing as they are plenty sweet enough! I used lemon aroma instead of coconut as I didn’t have any.
I am so thrilled to hear this! Thanks! 🙂
These were great!!!!!!!!! Excellent! So many recipes are a disaster! These were perfect love them
I am so thrilled to hear this! Thanks Jackie! 🙂