First Posting: Tequila Shot Cookies

My first ever blog post! I have recently made the decision to follow my life-long passion of baking (all 23-years!) and attend baking school here in Seattle. I have always loved experimenting in the kitchen but have always been a little reticent about making a career out of it. Well I have taken the leap and start school at the end of February -- so excited! Since my friends and family can only listen to me discuss the benefits of using room-temperature ingredients in cakes or the differences between fresh-made versus store bought lemon curd, I have decided to share my experiments, my results and my experiences through baking school here instead. Hopefully, if you have a life-long baking passion (or obsession, like me!) you will find my experiments helpful or at least interesting. And now for something a little sweeter...

One tequila cookie, two tequila cookies, three tequila cookies, floor!

My husband and I were lucky enough last week to escape the weather here in Seattle (28 degrees...ekk!)  and take a quick trip to Todos Santos, Mexico to celebrate our one year anniversary. Yay! About 40 minutes out of Cabo San Lucas -- unless you get lost, have no map and can't read the Mexican road signs -- Todos Santos is a beautiful, little artist town on the Pacific coast that is host to the infamous "Hotel California." Besides enjoying the beaches -- four days of 80 degree weather! -- we loved exploring all the restaurants in town. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, oh my! Most of all, we loved sampling all the different Mexican tequilas! We loved it so much that by the end of the trip we had purchased three different bottles to bring home with us. Little did we know you are only allowed legally to bring 1-liter per person through U.S. customs... Luckily, the customs agent was in a good mood, a rare occasion, and allowed us to keep all our boozy loot!

Last Sunday sunshine on the beaches of Todos Santos, Mexico...

When we returned home, I tried to bring the sun with me but, alas, no luck. As much as I love spending time in the mountains with my hubby, the fog and cold was bringing me down. To try and liven up my spirits, I decided to try out one of our new bottles of true Mexican tequila by making tequila butter cookies! 


...snow and fog this Sunday on the mountains in Seattle, Washington!

I adapted a recipe that I found on The Stir for Sugary Tequila Cookies. I really don't like the flavor of orange so I omitted the orange zest and added a little more lime zest to add a bit more lime flavor. To balance out the added tartness of the lime, I increased the amount of confectioner's sugar slightly. I also really wanted to the tequila flavor to be prominent so I doubled the amount of tequila used. If you are not a huge fan of tequila, I would recommend reducing the amount of tequila to your liking. The last adjustment I made was to add a little salt to the sugar rim to make the cookie truly resemble a tequila shot, with lime!

With a salt rim!

The result was a light, buttery cookie with a nice tang of lime and a full kick of tequila. It was very much like eating a tea cookie...infused with alcohol. I ate most of them straight off the pan -- this is easy to do since they are so small! -- but I also think that they would be nicely complemented by a scoop of strawberry or lime sorbet. The perfect little touch of warm Mexican sunshine in the middle of this foggy, wet Seattle winter. Ole!

Live. Love. Bake.

Tequila Shot Cookies 
Adapted from The Stir's Sugary Tequila Cookies recipe. Yields about 64 cookies.

Ingredients for the dough

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 
1 cup confectioner's sugar 
1 egg yolk, room temperature
2 tablespoons tequila (I used a bottle of Reposado from Mexico!)
pinch of salt
zest of 2 1/2 limes
2 cups flour 

Ingredients for the salt rim

1 egg yolk, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (or your favorite sea salt)

Method for the dough

1. Beat the butter with a mixer until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the confectioner's sugar until the mixture appears smooth, about another 3 minutes. Make sure that there are no clumps left from the confectioner's sugar. 
2. Beat in the egg yolk until just blended. Add the tequila, salt and lime zest. Beat until combined. Make sure not to over mix.  
3. Add the flour and mix in with a spoon. Gather the dough into a ball and divide in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll each ball into a long log about one-inch thick. Make sure that the ends are flat and the edges of the logs are smooth. Re-wrap the log in the plastic wrap. If the edges are still bumpy, roll the dough on the counter while in the plastic wrap. This will roll out the bumps without changing the size of the log. Chill for another hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the oven rack in the middle. Grease the baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. I prefer to use parchment paper as it doesn't add any additional flavors to the cookies.

Method for the salt rim

1.  Whisk the egg yolk in a small bowl. In a seperate bowl, mix the sugar and salt until well blended. Spread the sugar and salt mix out onto a piece of wax paper.
2. Remove the dough logs from the fridge and use a pastry brush to coat each log lightly with egg. Roll each log in the sugar and salt coating until evenly covered. Use your hands to pat the coating onto the log where it has a hard time sticking. 
3. Use a thin knife to slice the log into quarter-inch thick cookies. Wipe any excess dough off the knife to insure smooth cuts. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet; bake 10-12 minutes. The cookies should be pale but the rim should be lightly browned.