Key Lime Nutty Cookies with Matcha Green Tea and White Chocolate Chips.

The Key lime (Citrus × aurantiifolia) is a citrus hybrid with a spherical fruit, 2.5–5 cm (0.98–1.97 in) in diameter, that is yellow when ripe but usually picked green commercially.
It is smaller and seedier, with a higher acidity, a stronger aroma, and a thinner rind, than that of the lemon, It is valued for its unique flavor compared to other limes. The name comes from its association with the Florida Keys, where it is best known as the flavoring ingredient in Key lime pie. It is also known as West Indian lime, bartender’s lime, Omani lime, or Mexican lime.  The English word "lime" was derived, via Spanish then French  from the Arabic word līma (persian Limu)  "Key" is from Florida Keys, where the fruit is naturalized. The Oxford English Disctionary dates the first use of "key lime" to 1905, in an issue of Country Gentlman, which described the fruit as "the finest on the market. It is aromatic, juicy, and highly superior to the lemon. 

Matchais finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves. It is special in two aspects of farming and processing: the green tea plants for matcha are shade-grown for about three weeks before harvest and the stems and veins are removed in processing. During shaded growth, the tea plant produces more theanine and caffeine. This combination of chemicals is considered to account for the calm energy people might feel from drinking matcha. The powdered form of matcha is consumed differently from tea leaves or tea bags, and is dissolved in a liquid, typically water or milk.
The traditional Japanese tea ceremony centers on the preparation, serving, and drinking of matcha as hot tea and embodies a meditative spiritual style. In modern times, matcha also has come to be used to flavor and dye foods such as Mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream, matcha lattes, and a variety of Japanese wagashi confectionery.

 I love key limes and the one we get her especially at  Costco they are so juicy and huge. I used these for this recipe, if you have smaller variety of these lime like what we get in India, commonly known as Neebu or Limbu in Gujrati, you may need to use more of these that what is stated in this recipe.
These cookies make a good gift as their shelf life is longer than that of typical soft chocolate chip cookies that we make here.

I derived this recipe from Mexican wedding cookies, but I thought of using Match tea as I am lately obsessed with this green tea and have lot of this in my pantry.  Needless to say I love Pistachios and Walnuts so I made these with nuts, but you may omit the nuts if you are allergic to nuts or simply don't care for them.

 Ingredients: 

• 1 cup roasted salted or unsalted pistachios 
• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbls of Matcha green tea powder

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) 
• 1 cup of granulated sugar (as you can see I used 1 and 1/4 cup but I think these cookies came out little sweeter for my taste so now I am calling for 1 cup of sugar)
• 1 egg
• 4 limes (Large and Juicy) will yield 1/4 cup of juice and 2 tsp of grated lime rind
• 1 cup of white chocolate chip morsels (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
•  1/2 cup of powdered sugar to sprinkle on cookies

 Method:

• Preheat the oven at 350 F.
• Sift and mix flour, salt, baking powder and green tea powder together, set aside.
• Chop pistachio and then walnuts in food processor, set aside.
• Mix and cream the butter and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy.
• Add egg, beat until creamy.

• Grate the lime and take the juice out as shown here.
• Pour and mix in lime juice and lime peels/rind.
• Add flour mixture at low speed then add nuts  and mix at low speed.
• Fold it the white chocolate chips.
• Use hands to mix the contents at this point.
• Grease the cookie sheets (I made these in two batches)

• Scoop the cookie dough with ice cream scoop and make rounds with palm of your hands.
• If dough is too sticky to handle you can refrigerate it for 30 min.

• Once you place them on cookie sheets, make them flat and make a grid like impression with fork.

• Bake at 350 F for 15 min or until the edge are light brown, do not over bake them. (I baked them for 25 min and  they became very crispy once cooled down, I would have preferred a little chewy)
• Take them out of oven and  leave them on cookies sheet.

• Sprinkle/sift powdered sugar on them while they are still warm.
• Cool completely and store them in airtight container.

This recipe yields 30 cookies.

Enjoy !!

Information on Key Lime Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_lime
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Information on Matcha tea Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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