Rosemary Lime Cookies
Dec 16, 2009 tagged Dairy-free, Egg-free, Gluten-free, Vegan 
My sister is responsible for the Christmas cookies. She usually bakes Chocolate Chip, Biscotti, Russian Tea Cakes (her specialty) and maybe some kind of surprise cookie. They’re all traditionally made—with flour, eggs, and butter. *sigh*
I have only so much willpower folks. I need Christmas Cookies! That means I’ll be baking cookies, too—gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free Christmas Cookies.
Here’s the plan—Rosemary Lime Cookies, Cherry Nut Biscotti, and Dutch Cocoa Cookies. OK, so the Rosemary Lime Cookies are done (and really good!). The biscotti have been baked once but the recipe needs a little tweaking even though my taste tester hubby loved ‘em as is. (I’m going to try to get to those today.) And, the Dutch Cocoa Cookies are pretty easy so they’ll be next. If I can fit anymore in I’ll let you know.
I have this image of my family sitting in the kitchen with milk or hot cocoa munching a few cookies and musing over all the holiday things we didn’t seem to get done. Maybe the tree won’t get put up and decorated or the presents won’t be wrapped. (That’s right! You heard it—I don’t have my tree up yet! Oy!) But, I guarantee we’ll have cookies!!
On to the Rosemary Lime Cookies. Isn’t rosemary one of the best scents on earth? (I need to make a list of the 10 Best Kitchen Smells.) I have a little rosemary plant in my kitchen and it’s so aromatic. If you sniff gently I’m sure you can smell it.
The rosemary and lime in this cookie are wonderful together. Lime takes center stage and rosemary is just a subtle accent. And, they’re festive, too, don’t you think?
Rosemary Lime Cookies
For the cookies…
1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
1 1/2 cups GF flour mix*
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Earth Balance, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lime zest
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, crushed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lime juice
For the glaze…
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
Sprinkles or decorative sugar, optional
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk the flours and salt together in a medium bowl.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the softened Earth Balance and sugar on medium speed for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the lime zest, crushed rosemary, lime juice and vanilla—beat another minute or so until everything is incorporated and the batter is smooth.
Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture a little at a time. Mix until just combined.
Pull the dough together with clean, dry hands and split into two round sections. Wrap in waxed or parchment paper and place in the refrigerator until firm (about a half hour).
Roll out one chilled section of dough between two layers of parchment. It should be a little thicker than 1/8 inch. Cut out the cookies using a cookie cutter and place them about an inch apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press the scraps together and return to the fridge. Follow the same procedure with the other section of dough. Pull the scraps together into a ball, roll out and cut out more cookies.
Bake the cookies, two sheets at a time, for about 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Swap the position of the cookie sheets about halfway through the baking time. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
Lime Glaze
Whisk the confectioners’ sugar and lime juice together until it’s smooth and there are no lumps. Spoon it into a pastry bag (I use a plastic zipper bag with the tip of one of the bottom corners snipped) and pipe onto the cooled cookies. Sprinkle with decorating sugar, jimmies, or nonpareils, if desired.
Once the icing has hardened you can place them in an airtight container in the fridge for about 5 days. These freeze well if you want to make them in advance.
*Note: I used Authentic Foods Gluten-Free Multi Blend Flour.
Reader Comments (15)
Oh yum, I bet these are mighty tasty!
These look delicious! I'm intrigued by the idea of lime and rosemary together.
Ahhhhhhh.....nice! Love adding herbs to sweets just so good. Tarragon would be excellent too!
I love the idea of making rosemary lime cookies. I love both of those ingredients and would love to try them in my cookie cutter recipe. I can't have grains or sugars, so I have to go with a recipe that uses almond flour and honey.
Sarah
Beautiful cookies I bet the flavours are amazing, these cookies do not look even look gluten free either.
Ooo! Everything sounds wonderful! I love Christmas cookies, so I'm glad you figured out this awesomely good combination =D.
Those little trees look so perfect! I love the lime / rosemary combo, never would have thought of that.
Don't these just look yummy!! I think this would be a fun cookie to try out. Maybe I'll just have to do that. Thanks for sharing another wonderful looking recipe.
WOW! I just discovered your site and feel like a kid in a candy store! I'm definitely going to share it with my friends. Keep up the awesome work. :)
I stumbled upon your blog after doing a search for lemon rosemary gluten free cookies. I was so excited! I had intended to follow your recipe exactly, but I ran into some problems finding the gluten free flours (I don't usually cook gluten free and didn't want to buy as much of the flours as I would have had to because my store didn't have them in bulk) and some good looking limes. So I ended up buying the Bob's Red Mill gluten free shortbread mix, whose ingredients are very similar to the dry goods in your recipe. And I used a lemon, dried rosemary instead of fresh, and cut the cookies into 1-inch circles.
Although I deviated quite a bit from your recipe, in the end I imagine the taste was quite similar - and I thought they were great! A bit dry the way I made it, but very, very flaky. I look forward to trying your recipe (and others on your site) very soon!
I love the idea of adding lime to sugar cookies...I often add lemon and orange, but why not lime?!?! Mmmm. I love how you decorated them as well :)
Hi iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii where can I buy gluten free decorative sugar or gluten free frosting sugar (something like that, I think I saw it in one of your recepies?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cant eat dairy and cant eat gluten
Gerry - I've used turbinado sugar as decorative sugar in some of my recipes. You can make icing sugar if you're worried about what's in it but I've never tried that. I'm sorry I can't provide a brand name for you. It's best to contact the manufacturer of the sugars you're familiar with and ask them if their products are gluten-free.
Thanks for answering! Tyrbinado sugar looks like regular sugar but less white. What do you do with it? how do I make icing sugar??
And how do you make those pearls of sugar that are on top of the icing on the rosemary lime cookies?
Gerry - icing sugar is basically confectioners' sugar. If you want to make it you can find lots of recipes on the internet but here's one made with coconut sugar from Ali at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen -- http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2011/11/how-to-make-powdered-coconut-sugar.html
The little dots on the cookies are a type of white sprinkle.