These lime meltaway cookies are buttery, delicate cookies flavored with fresh lime juice and plenty of lime zest. Cornstarch and powdered sugar give them a tender, sandy crumb, while a final coating of powdered sugar makes every bite soft, citrusy, and melt-in-your-mouth.
They’re different enough from my French Sable Cookies to deserve their own citrus version. If you like simple buttery cookies, try my Simple Butter Cookies, use extra limes for my Lime Curd, or browse my Easy Dessert Recipes for more baking ideas.
What Are Lime Meltaway Cookies?
Lime meltaways are buttery slice-and-bake cookies made without eggs or baking powder. The dough gets its citrus flavor from fresh lime zest and juice, while flour and cornstarch create a delicate crumb.
The cookies are shaped into a log, chilled until firm, sliced into rounds, and baked while still fairly pale. After baking, they’re coated generously in powdered sugar.
This style is closely related to sablé and shortbread-style cookies, but the lime juice, cornstarch, and heavy powdered-sugar finish give these cookies their own distinctive texture.
Table of contents
Ingredients
Let’s Make Lime Meltaway Cookies
- Cream the Butter and Powdered Sugar
Add the 170 g softened butter and 40 g powdered sugar to a large mixing bowl.
Beat with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes, until the mixture looks smooth, creamy, and slightly lighter.
Do not add the remaining 80 g powdered sugar—the rest is for coating the finished cookies. The published version using these exact ingredient quantities also keeps most of the powdered sugar for the finish. cestmafournee.com
- Add the Lime
Add the zest of 2 limes, 30 g fresh lime juice, vanilla extract, and fleur de sel.
Mix again until everything is evenly incorporated.
The mixture may look slightly softer once the lime juice goes in; that’s normal.
- Add the Flour and Cornstarch
Whisk the flour and cornstarch together first.
Add them to the butter mixture and mix on low speed just until the flour disappears and a soft dough begins to form.
Don’t continue mixing once the dough comes together.
- Shape and Chill the Dough
Transfer the dough to your work surface and gently shape it into an even log approximately 1 1/2 inches / 4 cm in diameter.
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, until very firm. If you’re short on time, the matching published method allows about 15 minutes in the freezer instead. cestmafournee.com
Chilling is important here. King Arthur Baking explains that chilling firms the fat in cookie dough so it melts more slowly in the oven, which helps control spreading. King Arthur’s guide to chilling cookie dough
- Slice the Cookies
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) fan/convection.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Unwrap the chilled log and use a sharp knife to cut it into rounds approximately 1/3 inch / 8 mm thick.
Try to keep every slice the same thickness so they finish baking at the same time.
- Bake
Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking sheet with a little space between them.
Bake for about 18 minutes.
They should look set with only light coloring rather than becoming deeply golden. The 18-minute baking time corresponds to cookies approximately 8 mm thick and 4 cm wide, so noticeably thinner or thicker rounds will need adjustment. cestmafournee.com
- Coat With Powdered Sugar
Let the cookies cool.
Place the remaining 80 g powdered sugar in a shallow bowl and coat each cookie generously.
For the snowy white finish shown in your photos, coat the cookies after they have cooled rather than immediately out of the oven.
Once coated, gently shake off any loose excess sugar.
How to Get That Melt-in-Your-Mouth Texture
There are a few details that make a big difference with these cookies.
Start with softened rather than melted butter. Melted butter changes how quickly the fat spreads once the cookies enter the oven.
Then stop mixing as soon as the flour and cornstarch disappear. This isn’t a dough that benefits from lots of mixing—you want to preserve that delicate, crumbly texture.
The chilling step is equally important. The log should feel firm before you slice it. If the dough squashes under the knife instead of cutting into neat rounds, refrigerate it longer.
Finally, don’t overbake them. These lime meltaway cookies should remain pale rather than developing the deeper golden color you might want on a chocolate chip cookie.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Putting all 120 g powdered sugar into the dough: Only 40 g belongs in the dough; the remaining 80 g is the coating.
Using melted butter: It can make the dough overly soft and encourage spreading.
Overmixing after adding flour: Stop once a cohesive dough forms.
Skipping the chill: Warm dough is harder to slice and doesn’t hold its shape as well.
Cutting uneven slices: The tested baking time is based on rounds around 8 mm thick.
Baking until deeply golden: These cookies should remain fairly pale.
Coating warm cookies when you want a snowy finish: Warm cookies absorb more of the powdered sugar. Cool cookies keep the coating visibly white.
What to Serve With Lime Meltaway Cookies
The bright lime flavor works especially well with coffee, espresso, Earl Grey tea, green tea, cold milk, hot chocolate, vanilla ice cream, fresh berries, or other citrus desserts.
For a simple afternoon serving, I like them with unsweetened tea or coffee because the drink balances the buttery powdered-sugar finish.
FAQs
They fit both descriptions stylistically, but lime meltaway cookies is more precise for this particular recipe because of the cornstarch and thick powdered-sugar coating.
Cornstarch helps create a more delicate crumb and reduces the amount of regular flour needed in the dough.
Only 40 g powdered sugar goes into the dough because another 80 g is added as the coating.
Putting all the sugar into the dough would change the texture and sweetness balance.
They should be set and only lightly colored rather than deeply browned.
The dough was probably too warm.
Chill the shaped log until firm and slice it immediately before baking.
More Recipes To Try
Lime Meltaway Cookies
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Beat the softened butter and 40 g powdered sugar for about 3 minutes, until creamy.
- Add the lime zest, lime juice, vanilla, and fleur de sel. Mix until combined.
- Whisk together the flour and cornstarch.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix just until a soft dough forms.
- Shape the dough into a log about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) in diameter.
- Wrap tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm.
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) fan/convection and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Slice the chilled log into rounds approximately 1/3 inch (8 mm) thick.
- Arrange on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for about 18 minutes, until set and only lightly golden.
- Let the cookies cool.
- Coat each cookie generously in the remaining 80 g powdered sugar.
Nutrition
Video
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