Key Lime Cookies with Lime Glaze

Key lime pie belongs to the Florida Keys the way gumbo belongs to New Orleans. The story goes that sponge fishermen in the late 1800s, without access to refrigeration, combined sweetened condensed milk with the small, aromatic limes that grew wild on the islands. Whether or not that's entirely true, the flavor combination became iconic. These cookies capture that same tropical tartness in a form you can pack for a potluck or ship across the country.

The secret is restraint with the sugar and generosity with the zest. Most lime cookie recipes taste like sugar cookies with a whisper of citrus. These taste like key lime pie in cookie form. You'll use both zest and juice in the dough, then double down with a glaze that puckers your mouth before the sweetness catches up. That's the balance you're after.

Key limes are smaller than Persian limes, more aromatic, with a floral quality that regular limes can't replicate. If you can find them fresh, use them. If not, bottled key lime juice works in the dough, but fresh zest from regular limes will still give you a respectable cookie. The texture lands somewhere between shortbread and a sugar cookie: tender, slightly crumbly, sturdy enough to hold up under that glossy glaze.