A take on a classic snowball cookie, these cookies have a hint of lime, mint, and rum flavoring to give them a hint of the refreshing taste of a mojito.
It took THREE of us to gather the votes and its was close! One vote either way and we were looking at a three way tie between the lime sherbet with blueberry coulis, the pulled pork salad with lime cilantro dressing, and a lime and white chocolate no bake cheesecake. Personally I voted for the pulled pork....because I left the dressing off and was happily oblivious to the taste of lime! After five minutes of calling out votes we had a winner! The no bake cheesecake! Congratulations to Eve and Dave on their winning dish! The recipe is posted below!
If your new to my blog, you may not know that I am not a huge fan of lemons and limes. I love oranges, tangerines and clementines....but....lime? lemon? Not my favorite. I'm sure you know the feeling where, if you don't like a certain flavor it's ALL you taste in the dish. So while I can taste the lime easily in my cookies, it turns out that others couldn't! I HATE that. Everyone agreed the cookies were delicious, just not as "limey" as a mojito cookie should be. Booooo. So, take my recipe and consider it to be a "to taste" guideline. If it were up to me, the cookies would just be mint. No lime. But that's not the challenge!
Cheers!
Mojito Snowball Cookies
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lime cocktail syrup (to taste. I prefer a very light lime flavor)
2 tablespoons rum or 1 tsp. rum extract
2 teaspoons peppermint sugar (made from a handful of peppermint candies)
1 cup powdered sugar
Using a food processor, grind a handful of peppermint candies into a fine powder.
Whisk flour and cornstarch in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in lime juice, rum or rum extract, and peppermint sugar. Beat in flour mixture until smooth. Refrigerate dough until just firm, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using scant 1 tablespoon for each, form dough into balls and place on prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.
Bake cookies until pale golden on top and browned on bottom, about 23 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to racks; immediately sift generous amount of powdered sugar over cookies. Cool cookies completely on baking sheets.
Key Lime Mousse Pie
as adapted from Paula Deen
2 cups crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
6 tablespoons fresh key lime juice
1 1/4 ounces (1 envelope) package unflavored gelatin
2 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided
10 ounces finest quality white chocolate, chopped
24 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lime zest
1 1/2 ounces white chocolate, grated or shaved into curls, for garnish
Mix together the cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press the mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the lime juice. Whisk in the gelatin and 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Add 10 ounces of white chocolate and stir until smooth. Allow to cool.
Using an electric mixer, blend together the cream cheese, sugar and lime zest in a medium bowl, until smooth. Slowly beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture into cream cheese mixture.
Using clean, dry beaters, beat the remaining 2-cups heavy cream in a small bowl, until it forms soft peaks. Fold it into the white chocolate mixture and pour into the pie crust. Cover and freeze overnight.
Remove from freezer and run a sharp knife around inside of springform pan to help loosen the pie. Release springform ring from the bottom of the pan and transfer the pie to a serving plate. Grate or curl the white chocolate over the top. Cut into wedges with a knife that has been dipped into hot water and serve.