Tuesdays With Dorie: Coconut Butter Thins + an announcement

Before I get started with another round of Tuesdays With Dorie, I want to give my fellow TWD bakers and my readers a heads-up:

In mid-April, I'm leaving for a work trip to Sweden. I'll be gone for almost two weeks, and working, on average, 12-15 hours a day. Needless to say my posting will be sporadic during this time! I'm aiming to get some scheduled posts ready to go for while I'm out of the country, but since I'll be so busy prepping for my big work event, I'm not certain that I'll have time.

I definitely won't have time to do much Tuesdays With Dorie baking this month. I'll try to make at least one recipe, but can't make any guarantees. So while I won't be around for part of April, don't forget about me - I'll be back to my regular TWD schedule in May, and back to my regular blogging schedule sooner.

Now, on with the show.

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, courtesy of Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch, is coconut butter thins. I have to admit that I wasn't terribly excited to make these based on the title alone, since I really don't like shortbread and these sounded an awfully lot like shortbread.

But I thought I'd take a chance, especially since these buttery cookies contain coconut, lime zest, and coriander. Definitely more exotic than your average shortbread.

I doubled the lime zest and rubbed it, with sugar, between my fingers before adding it to the dough. This made the batter taste so good. I kept sneaking little spoonfuls of it. It tasted so fresh and tropical! The recipe also called for macadamia nuts, although I left these out.

I did find that, even though I rolled out the cookies exactly to specifications, they ended up cooking much faster than Dorie said. The cookies weren't supposed to colour at all but they had browned quite a bit by the time I got them out of the oven. I should have been watching them more carefully, but I didn't. Oh, well!

I also thought that the baked cookies were much less flavourful than the batter, although I suppose that's to be expected. But since the batter was somebody-take-this-mixer-bowl-away-from-me delicious, I was still a bit disappointed at the loss of flavour.

But you know what? These grew on us. We weren't overly impressed at first but kept snacking on them and liking them more with time. Suddenly the cookie jar is almost empty and I find myself wanting more.

Next time, though, I'm quadrupling the lime zest and adding more coriander.

Thanks for the selection, Jayne! You can visit her blog for the recipe.