Margarita Cookies

A savory cook doesn’t like to measure. Prides herself on creativity, spontaneity, judging temperature by sound, flavor by taste. A pastry cook prides herself on accuracy, on regiment. She is patient and organized and finds big reward in tiny little measuring spoons. For a long time I couldn’t identify with the latter … until last week when I found sanity in a cookie.

So why have I interrupted your day … hijacked your Facebook page, broken your twitter feed with this recipe? Because this cookie has tequila in it PEOPLE! And it’s got lime and salt which makes it newsworthy, in my opinion.

Don’t worry, you can go to work after eating one AND you can drive AND you can still talk without slurring.

Unless you’re like me and you eat so many of them you have to lay down flat. And you profess you’ll never have another cookie, shortly before going into the kitchen to have another cookie and then you fall asleep with crumbs on your shirt.

Sorry guys, I’m taken.

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Margarita Cookies

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen
Makes about 50 cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons tequila
Grated zest of 2 limes
Grate zest of half an orange
2 cups all-purpose flour
Approximately 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt

Procedure

Whip the butter in a stand up mixer until smooth and then add the confectioner’s sugar. Beat until silky. Add the first egg yolk, salt, tequila, lime zest and orange zest. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour. Turn the dough out onto a counter, scraping up any flour that wasn’t incorporated and gather it into a ball. Split the dough ball in half and wrap each half with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for half an hour.

Form each piece of dough into a log that is about 1 inch thick. Wrap each log in plastic and chill for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Meanwhile, whisk the second egg yolk in a small bowl. Mix the coarse sugar and salt in another bowl. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap and glaze with egg. Then coat generously with sugar/salt mixture. Slice each log into cookies about 1/4 inch thick. Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch space between them. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are set but not browned.

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Tagged as: citrus, cookies, dessert, margarita