Margarita Cookies

My friend and colleague, Matt, showed me a recipe book a few months ago - it had lots of different types of cookies and biscuits to try, and one that stuck in my mind was Margarita Cookies, so I thought I'd give them ago. I didn't have the recipe book to hand today when I was making them, so I sort of made it up as I went, following the principle of lime biscuits with tequila icing.

So here's what I did...

For the biscuits:
225g butter
110g caster sugar
275g plain flour
Zest of 1 lime

For the icing*:
115g icing sugar
2 tablespoons of tequila
Splash of lime juice

1. Cream the butter so it's light and smooth
2. Cream together the caster sugar and smooth butter
3. Mix in the lime zest
4. Work in the flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until a dough is formed

The first batch of these I did had quite a dry dough - the second was more moist even though I used the same quantities. It's worked out nicely with both consistencies - so long as it's not sloppy and you can mould it with your hands you should be ok!

5. Roll these into small balls, about the size of a walnut, and place on a baking tray, lined with baking paper.
6. Squash the balls down with your fingers to make rough circles about 8mm thick. They don't need to be smooth - in fact the bumpier they are the easier they are to ice. You should end up with 25 biscuits.
7. Bake at 170 degrees celcius (fan assisted oven) for 13 minutes, then transfer onto a wire rack for cooling.
8. Mix in the first tablespoon of tequila to the icing sugar, to make a paste. Then mix in the next tablespoon which should loosen the mixture even more.
9. Add a splash of lime juice if you think the mixture needs loosening further - but remember it's got to stick to the biscuits and dry, so you don't want it too sloppy.
10. Dip a spoon into the icing, and drizzle it over the biscuits. To do mine I put all the biscuits close together and shook the icing over a bit like a cobweb.
11. Allow to dry for an hour (but they're ok to try before they're dry!).

*this much icing was enough to cover a batch and a half of cookies