TWD - Coconut Butter Thins

How can you not love a shortbread recipe that has thin in its name? I mean, they say to me "Eat more! We're thin!"

This week's delicious Tuesdays with Dorie pick is an addictive shortbread cookie brought to us by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch. I made these at the end of a baking/cooking extravaganza weekend that left my kitchen looking like this:


I know what you're thinking. Did rogue chefs break into my house, trash the kitchen, and run? No, I did this all by myself. As an aside, if you think redoing your kitchen will provide the push you need to keep it tidy all the time, the answer is no. I am still the same person who does three things at a time and completes none of them.

Back to the cookies. That they somehow escaped from this kitchen unscathed is a miracle. That's one good thing about being in TWD. I really have to produce finished products on occasion so I can photograph them and write about them on this blog.

I went for the recipe as written by Dorie the Great. It was, after all, Sunday night, and I was tired after a day of trashing my kitchen cooking and baking. Fortunately I had everything I needed, including the appropriately sized Ziploc bag. Like I said, I was tired so my macadamias (I used salted as encouraged by Dorie) weren't chopped into teeny tiny pieces. I rolled the dough out in the bag to the exact measurements (I hear you guffawing out there...but it was close) put it in the refrigerator, contemplated cleaning the kitchen but went to bed instead.

The next morning, I cut open the bag, and cut 30 cookies of varying sizes. I didn't bother putting the slab of dough on the cutting board, because I figured it would be easier to scrape them off the bag than it would be to scrape them off the cutting board, and it worked pretty well. I hoped they would maintain their blocky shape after baking, but knew from the P&Q that they likely wouldn't.

They were definitely done after 18 minutes. I wished I checked them a minute sooner since I find shortbread is overcooked if it is slightly brown around the edges. I waited a few minutes for them to cool before I sampled one. It was delicate, buttery (but not overly so) and had the slightest hint of lime. Once the cookies cooled, they were chewy and complex. I would have liked more lime flavor so next time (and oh, will there be a next time) I will probably double the lime zest.

Make these. Now. They're lovely and would adapt to a myriad of variations. Try them with pine nuts and rosemary in place of the coconut and macadamias. Or leave in the coconut and macadamia and jazz them up with curry powder. Go for it. After all, they're thin.