key lime meltaways

I remember years ago (dare I say decades?) when I had my first taste of a rum meltaway cookie.
What a great texture, great flavor--and it bothered me to no end what made it so smooth.
Since I was still fairly new at the in's and out's of baking and cooking, I would have never guessed it was cornstarch.
Funny because back then I always thought it was something unique, wild, a rare faraway spice or herb. HA!
Here it was just cornstarch.
Recently, I had another "ah ha baking moment" find when I discovered how to get the perfect popover: cold oven.
And boy does it work. (I learned this from chef john over at Food Wishes).
The best part of learning and creating new recipes, all the new tips and tricks you find along the way; makes you eager to continue on learning all you can in cooking and baking. And for me, helps build confidence in the kitchen.

What are your baking "ah ha" moments?


Aren't these so pretty?
Make sure to decorate the chocolate dipped edges with lime zest.
I completely forgot. But trust me when I say the lime zest green color looks stunning against the white chocolate.


Every great recipe starts with lots of butter doesn't it?






See my tips on tempering the ever difficult white chocolate in the recipe.
Low heat and constant stirring for melting chocolates perfectly.
Remember: you can easily fixed undermelted, but cannot fix overmelted, so go slow.


Decorate the edges with lime zest to make them even more stunning!
(I completely forgot this part)



key lime melt-aways with white chocolate
print recipe

13 TB unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Grated zest of 2 regular limes (I used about 2 TB zest, use whatever your lime zest taste level is at)
2 TB of fresh key lime juice (regular will work too)
½ TB pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups + 2 TB all-purpose flour
2 TB cornstarch
1/4 ts salt

white chocolate dipping:
1 and ¾ cups good quality white chocolate chips
a couple dashes of heavy cream

extra lime zest for sprinkling (I forgot this part)

Cook Notes:
I used key limes for the juice part and regular limes for the zest. The key lime juice is much sweeter and tastier, and the skin of the key lime isn’t that great so that’s why I used regular limes for zest.
Keep in mind the thinner you cut/slice the cookies the more fragile they become, so I stuck with ½ inch thick. If you’re not dipping them in white chocolate then go ahead make them thinner if desired.
The tops of the cookies do not brown, but the bottoms will—you should not bake cookies past the 15 minute mark.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl beat butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add the lime juice, zest and vanilla and beat the mixture until fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixer to the butter. Mix until just combined—once you add the flour do not overmix.
Ready a two 8"x12" pieces of waxed paper or parchment. Divide the dough into two equal portions and roll into two 1.25" diameter logs. Wrap the dough tightly in the waxed paper or parchment. Chill for at least an hour before baking.

Heat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Slice the cookies ½ -inch thick and place on the baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until the bottoms take on some color. The tops of the cookies will not brown, but the bottoms will.
Let cookies cool completely before dipping.
Temper the white chocolate chips with the heavy cream over a double boiler or whatever method you prefer and works. I do not recommend melting white chocolate in the microwave.
What I do is heat up (barely warm means heat up in this case), over very low heat, the heavy cream, in a small heavy duty sauce pan; add in the white chocolate chips and keep stirring with a spatula. As I’m stirring I take the pan on and off the heat and look for almost all the chips to be dissolved then I take it off heat. Keep stirring till I get a nice glossy, almost thin, taffy like texture. Best thing to do if you’re not sure about tempering white chocolate? Keep stirring and take off heat frequently. You can easily fixed undermelted, but cannot fix overmelted.
Dip one end of the cooled cookies in the white chocolate, place on wire cooling rack to let chocolate harden and excess drip off. Sprinkle them with lime zest for decorations if desired.

Should make 25-35 cookies depending on how thick/thin you slice them.