Lemon-lime basil cookies

Happy belated 4th of July! Zeph and I spent the holiday in Ocean Shores, WA at the beach with his parents and grandparents.  The firework situation was unlike any i've ever experienced before.  Mini fireworks are legal, but to get the big ones that shoot up you have to go to Indian Reservations.  Then, in order to legally use them, you have to set them off from Reservation property.  The beach where we stayed was technically a reservation, so hundreds of people drove right onto the beach, trucks loaded with huge fireworks and set them off all day and night long!  We bought a few ourselves on the drive up, a had a ton of fun lighting up the sky while sipping beers and chatting with the locals.

I brought some cookies along to share while sitting around the fire.  This recipe is perfect because it makes exactly one dozen, while some cookie recipes yield way too many to handle (and if you're anything like me, you don't need extra cookies laying around begging to be eaten!) I used the basil we're growing on our balcony, and I love the herbal flavor of these not overly-sweet treats. Using herbs in desserts always gives a little unexpected flavor to the after-dinner course!

Lemon-lime basil cookies
1 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar (and a little extra for pressing cookies)
12 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 Tbs sliced basil leaves
1 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp lime zest
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 375.  Place all ingredients into a food processor.  Pulse until large clumps form.  Roll 12 balls out of the dough and place on baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Lightly dust the bottom of a flat measuring cup with powdered sugar and press cookies into 2 inch rounds, dusting the cup bottom with powdered sugar between each press.  Bake about 20 minutes.

Before baking.  Looking a little green! The green color ended up fading after they baked.

Packed and ready to take to the beach.  I love the little flecks of basil in the dough.  They look plain, but the zest adds a ton of flavor to these yummy cookies!