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Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies

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Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies -- full of fresh lime, coconut, and buttery flavors, and topped with a light lime glaze. One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes! | gimmesomeoven.com

Today I thought we’d take a trip back down into the blog’s archives to revisit one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes.

I actually posted the recipe for these cookies back in my very first year of blogging, and they’ve been getting progressively buried in our cookie archives ever since. But I still make them every single year around the holidays, and can hardly believe their buttery, citrusy, sweet goodness each time I do. They are just the best!!!

Even better, they’re super nice and sturdy, which has made them my go-to recipe for cookie exchanges over the years. I must admit — I have received many a box over the years that has been full of cookie crumbles, especially when shipped through the mail system. But when packed correctly, I promise that these cookie will hold up well even when being shipped across the country, or carried in a toddler’s wobbly path down the street to a neighbor. :)  I’ve given them out for years, and they always receive rave reviews.

So, as is my annual tradition, a friend and I actually made a quadruple batch of these this month to get ready for the holiday season. Half of mine were packed up to give out as part of the World’s Largest Cookie Exchange that I’m participating in with Better Homes & Gardensand half went in the freezer to have on hand for last-minute holiday gatherings and such. (Ok, actually we couldn’t wait and some friends helped demolish a few dozen of them early while cheering on our Royals during the World Series, which I have to think helped contribute to their sweet win, right?! Right.)

So let’s make some more together, and spread the sweet cookie love!

Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies -- full of fresh lime, coconut, and buttery flavors, and topped with a light lime glaze. One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes! | gimmesomeoven.com

Alright, well first off, I want to give credit where credit is due. I actually received this recipe after begging for it at a bridal shower 6 years ago with my friend, Amy. Her aunt, Bonnie, is a fantastic baker and always goes all-out making amazing spreads of sweets and bars and cookies for parties. And at this particular shower, the fruity-dessert lover in me was immediately drawn to the cute little handwritten sign that said coconut-lime shortbread cookies.

In the middle of the freezing winter in Kansas, these sounded like a taste of no less than tropical paradise.

Turns out…they were just that.

Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies -- full of fresh lime, coconut, and buttery flavors, and topped with a light lime glaze. One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes! | gimmesomeoven.com

Buttery shortbread cookies baked with a good hint of lime and toasted coconut…then topped with a sweet lime glaze…how could you go wrong?!

Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies -- full of fresh lime, coconut, and buttery flavors, and topped with a light lime glaze. One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes! | gimmesomeoven.com

The answer is that you can’t. :)

You absolutely can’t go wrong with these.

And because of that, I highly recommend making a double or triple batch of these if you can. Shortbread cookies are a bit of a time commitment either way, so if you’re going to go to the work, I always vote that you might as well make extras to freeze or give away. (And a quick note — if you aren’t going to eat them right away, I recommend stirring the lime zest into the glaze as pictured above, instead of sprinkling it on top.)Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies -- full of fresh lime, coconut, and buttery flavors, and topped with a light lime glaze. One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes! | gimmesomeoven.com

But if you are going to eat them fairly quickly, I love the look of that bright green zest topping each cookie like confetti. So cute!
Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies -- full of fresh lime, coconut, and buttery flavors, and topped with a light lime glaze. One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes! | gimmesomeoven.com

As I mentioned above, I packed up a few little boxes of these to give away this year as part of The World’s Largest Cookie Exchange with Better Homes & Gardens, which you can join too if you’re interested! They have all sorts of great little free printable holiday gift tags an recipe cards online, as well as hundreds and hundreds of other cookie recipes that you can browse for inspiration.

So if you’re needing some simple (and inexpensive) homemade gifts to give out this year, I highly recommend getting involved and giving the gift of something homemade from your kitchen. I have some more great DIY homemade projects coming up on the blog this month, too, so stay tuned for more ideas.

Cheers to sharing the homemade cookie love!

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Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.6 from 13 reviews
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 20 -30 cookies 1x

Description

These Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies are perfectly light, sweet, buttery, and full of fresh lime and coconut flavor!


Ingredients

Scale

Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookie Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut, toasted
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lime zest
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces

Lime Glaze Ingredients:

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon lime zest
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 23 tablespoons water

Instructions

To Make The Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies:

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
  2. In a food processor, combine coconut, sugar, lime zest, and the vanilla extract.  Pulse a few times until the coconut is finely chopped. Add flour, and pulse until combined.  Gradually add in the butter pieces and pulse until the mixture is smooth and combined.  (The dough will appear fairly dry.)
  3. Transfer to a very large bowl, and knead dough until smooth.  (If the dough is still too dry and crumbly, add in a half teaspoon of water at a time until it clings together.)  Shape dough into a ball, then divide in half.
  4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the dough portions to about 1/4-inch thickness. Using your desired cookie cutters (I used a 1.5-inch round cutter), cut out dough. Place cutouts 1″ apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
  5. Repeat with the remaining dough on a second cookie sheet.
  6. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or just until bottoms start to brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack, and let cool to room temperature.
  7. Drizzle each cookie with the lime glaze, adding extra lime zest on top if desired.

To Make Lime Glaze:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, lime peel, and lime juice until combined. Add in the two or three tablespoons of water, and whisk until it reaches a good consistency for spreading.

Notes

Recipe from a friend.

Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies -- full of fresh lime, coconut, and buttery flavors, and topped with a light lime glaze. One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes! | gimmesomeoven.com

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77 comments on “Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookies”

  1. I’ve never made holiday cookies before so I’m an inexperienced baker. I was very excited about this recipe because the flavors sounded so appealing. Making them went fine, but I don’t taste the coconut! I used organic, unsweetened flaked coconut that I toasted myself. May look around to see if there are other lime/coconut cookie recipes to try but I guess, if I do try this one again, I’ll double the coconut.






  2. Was an easy recipe to follow, and the taste is heavenly!! I found the texture much different to my Christmas shortbreads which I don’t roll. It was still a good cookie, not over baked just crisper than I am used to! And the glaze was just what was needed for that extra little pop of citrus… unfortunately I should have second guessed the recipe and made it thicker with extra sugar! But don’t get me wrong, this recipe will definitely be going on my favourites list!! Thank you for sharing it!






  3. Is the coconut sweetened or unsweetened? I look forward to baking these!

  4. Just finished a batch of these cookies and I have to say they’re the perfect cookie!

  5. I’ve made these for several years now and they are always a hit. I usually make them in the spring for my woman club and for birthdays. I should add these to my holiday cookie tins.
    I’ve also made these gluten free and they are still a hit. I add same amount of gluten free flour(king arthur} and some anthem gum, {Bobs redial} it has amounts for different baking on package.

  6. Made as thumbprint cookies for convenience. Made a 2″ diameter log of dough. Put in fridge to chill. I sliced into 1/3″ rounds. After 5 minutes in oven, indented the middle of each cookie with a fork (to hold frosting later). Not as pretty as the picture, but it was quick and easy. When I make these again, I think I will only put the lime flavoring in the frosting and replace part of the butter with coconut butter/oil.






  7. How I wishhh I remembered to spoon my flour. I ended up with a cracking dough (which resulted in a dry shortbread) due to too much flour. Don’t make the same mistake I did! Also something weird about the lime zest with the sugar made the glaze taste like soap? Taste-test your lime zest before adding it into the sugar for the glaze? Cookie flavour was perfection. Definitely toast the coconut beforehand… it’s worth it.

  8. Just made these and they are great. I didn’t have a food processor but used a Ninja and it got the job done! My question is how long are these good for and what’s the best method of storage?