Lemon Lime Coconut Sugar Cookies

Sometimes you just need a cookie.  I recently had the pleasure of spending time with my favourite little cookie monster.  We went to the park, ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches shaped like hearts, drank steamed soy milk while playing with warthogs and beluga whales at a local coffee shop and went to the grocery store (It's probably not the best idea to let a 3 year old place your produce in your grocery cart unless of course you don't mind fruit that looks like it's been through a game of ping pong but you likely already knew that).

It was a very exciting trip to the grocery store. We learned how to grind coffee beans.  We also learned that ground coffee tastes really yucky and that it is really hard to get off of your tongue (don't ask and don't tell his mother)!  The cookie monster didn't get any cookies (or peas, or chocolate bars, or broccoli, or coconuts) but he did get an apple that was about the same size as his head (note to self: double check back seat for decomposing chunks of apple).

I like to feed this little cookie monster cookies filled with whole grains, dried fruit, & nuts (that's how I roll) but since I had no intention of sharing these lemon lime coconut sugar cookies were a great way to use the lemon and limes that survived the last week's refrigerator meltdown.

Lemon Lime Coconut Sugar Cookies

(18 cookies + a few spoonfuls of raw cookie dough)

ingredients

1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 C wholewheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

5 Tblsp Earth Balance (butter or margarine work as well)

1/3 cup turbino sugar

1 tsp grated lemon peel

1/8 C fresh lemon juice

1/8 C fresh lime juice

1/4 C grated unsweetened coconut

2 Tbsp turbino sugar (for rolling cookies)

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Place baking stone in the oven so that it can preheat as well.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder and coconut and set aside.  In a medium bowl cream Earth Balance & sugar until light and fluffy (you can use a spoon or an electric mixer.  I am way too lazy to dig out the electric mixer).  Add lemon peel, lemon and lime juice.  Add flour mixture to wet ingredients.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar.  Place several inches apart on baking sheet.  Use the tines of a fork to flatten cookies.  Bake 10-12 minutes until golden.

* In order to maximize the amount of lemon/lime juice that you get from your fruit let your lemons/limes stand briefly in hot water and roll them on the counter before juicing them.  I personally like using a wooden lemon reamer (fancy name for a pretty simple gadget).