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The Batter Thickens

A food blog balancing sweet treats & healthy eats.

Key Lime Pie Sugar Cookies

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I was bemoaning the amount of graham crackers I had, but a stroke of genius led me to a way to use them up. Key lime pie sugar cookies! Another twist on the now classic recipe. I need to remember for the future. Graham crackers = s’mores, but there are also plenty of other use cases! Classic pies can be a great source of inspiration.

I may have been overzealous in my endeavor to use up the graham crackers, because I think I got the ratio wrong on graham crackers to flour. I was going to just sub 1/3 cup graham crackers for 1/3 cup milk powder. But there were STILL MORE GRAHAM CRACKERS, so I subbed out some of the flour as well.

Not to say that made these didn’t taste great. They just spread out really thin. But you know what? That’s more surface area for the key lime frosting!

I thought of it only after the fact, but I could have used some of those extra graham crackers to make a graham crumb to put on top, instead of sprinkles. A note for the future! It would be like a little graham sandwich around key lime frosting. Yum.

For those following along at home, this is now the 20th iteration of those classic sugar cookies from 2014. Crazy! Cheers to many more iterations to come.

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Key Lime Pie Sugar Cookies

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  • Author: Audrey
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Ingredients

For the cookies:

  • 1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
  • 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1 tbsp glucose
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 + 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 cup crushed graham crackers
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt

For the key lime frosting:

  • 1 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese
  • 2 to 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
  • 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure key lime extract
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • green extract, if desired

Instructions

Make the cookies:

  1. Combine the butter, sugar and glucose in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides, add in the eggs and vanilla and beat for 7-8 minutes.
  2. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in the flour, graham cracker crumbs, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together – no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  3. Using a 3 tbsp measure, portion out the dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet – you should get 15-20 large balls of dough. Pat the tops of the cookie balls flat – wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 1 week. Do not bake the cookies from room temp – they will not bake properly!
  4. Heat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the chilled dough at least 4 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes – the cookies will puff, crackle and spread. The cookies should look lightly browned on the edges (golden brown on the bottom) – the centers will show just the beginning signs of color. If they haven’t reached that color yet, leave them in a for an extra minute or two. Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before frosting.

Make the frosting:

  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until soft, about 1 minute.
  2. Add 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar, the salt, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until the sugar is well incorporated.
  3. Add another 2 cups sugar and the cream. Add remaining 2 cups of sugar as needed to thicken the frosting. Beat on medium speed until the frosting is smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
  4. Frost cookies generously. Fill a bowl with sprinkles. Place cookies frosting side down into bowl of sprinkles and press firmly to coat.