I came to margarita appreciation very late in life. I of course did not drink at all while my epilepsy was active, at which point my only memory of tequila was extremely nasty cheap stuff in college. But I love limes, and so one day after I started drinking again I tried one.
Wow.
So when I came across a cookie meant to emulate margaritas, with their salty sour citrus notes–and sweet too because it IS a cookie–I was all over that. These did not disappoint; the salty sweet lemon lime zing hits your tongue right as you bite into the cookie (much as the salt hits your tongue right before you sip the margaita), and it all just works. My husband could taste the salt, and he does not like salt so he was not a fan, but the kids and I loved them and so did a friend.
A note on the salt: unlike with chocolate desserts, you do want to stick to the recipe for the salt. I made the mistake of adding a tad too much (because I like a lot of salt with chocolate).
Margarita Cookies
Adapted from Salty Sweets, Christie Matheson
2 cups AP flour
3/4 t fine sea salt, divided
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar, divided
1 large egg yolk
1 T fresh lemon juice
zest of 2 lemons and 2 limes, mixed together
Whisk together the flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Set aside.
Cream the butter for 1 minute with a mixer (handheld or stand), and then add 3/4 cup of sugar and beat on medium high speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk, lemon juice, and 3/4 of the lemon and lime zest to the butter mixture. Beat for 2 moreminutes. Slowly mix in the flour mixture.
Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt and the remaining lemon and lime zest. Roll the dough into 2 logs 1 1/2 – 2 inches in diameter and the roll the dough logs in the sugar-salt-zest mix. Wrap the dough logs in plastic and chill for 30-60 minutes.
15 minutes before removing the logs, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line your baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Slice the chilled logs into rounds about 1/4-inch thick and place on the prepared sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or just until the cookies are lightly browned on the bottom and edges. Let cool on the sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
There look hella good
Oh my stars, sweet and salty….this could be the begining of world peace!
I've tweeted this numerous times, but I LOVE margaritas. I saw another marg cookie recipe a few months back and this reminded me that I wanted to try these out!
The salt is my favorite part!
it only takes a nip of tequila to knock me down, so i obviously prefer a maragarita-style cookie to the real thing. 🙂 the rim of salt is awesome!
Homemade margaritas is the house drink in my house! Maybe it's because we have a wonderful lime tree for inspiration! We will have to try these cookies!
This cookie sounds delicious. I pretty much like anything with lemon/lime. Wish I had had some of these to celebrate Spain's world cup win today.
Margaritas are a favorite here… my 10 year old daughter loves anything resembling a margarita and looks forward to the day she can have a "real" one. These will be a hit for her I'm sure! Love your photos as well… nicely done!
Throw this back with a shot of Tequila and you have a party. Nice post.
I may not be able to handle tequila but I would be able to have these 😀 Great recipe.
I can't wait to try these cookies. Your photos of them look so good!
Ooh! Two awesome things combined! These look fantastic 🙂
Disappointed in the recipe. Don’t taste anything like margaritas. Just a butter cookie. May switch the lemon juice for lime juice. Add more salt to the sugar mix. You can’t roll the logs in the sugar mix., the dough is too soft. I woudn’t make them again, too much work.
I am sorry they did not work out for you Barb. I am shocked you could not taste citrus with the zest of 2 limes and 2 lemons in the dough. As to the softness of the dough, usually the culprit is either too warm of a kitchen, in which case chill the dough to firm it, or possibly the way you measured the flour resulted in too little flour. If I don’t list a weight, it means I fluffed the flour, spooned it into a measuring cup and then leveled it with a knife. Hope that helps.